Acceler8
by Gloria Byrd
Summary: After becoming metahumans, Amara Jones and Barry Allen's fates are split between STAR Labs and an organization that plans to turn Amara into a weapon. However, they didn't count on Barry's ability to turn even the worst villains benevolent, or his charm. Through her struggles of sacrifice, love, and battling the darkness within her, Amara might become a hero in more ways than one.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any properties of DC.**

**A/N: This takes place in 2013, 2014, and 2018 (during the first season and after the fourth season of the CW Flash TV show).**

* * *

_"My name is Amara Jones, and I'm the fastest woman alive."_

_"__I don't think that bolt of lightning struck you . . . I think it chose you." ~ Oliver Queen/Arrow_

_"__Make that lightning strike twice." ~ Amara Jones_

_This tale begins on a different Earth, but one that is nearly the same as the one we know and love, the Earth with Barry Allen existing as the Flash, the Earth known as Earth Prime. However, this other Earth has one key difference. In this reality, our Barry almost married someone besides Iris West. His heart belonged to a woman named Amara Jones. Who knows what would have happened if everything had gone according to plan . . ._

* * *

Prologue

December 11th, 2013

"So, Harrison Wells is planning to make his particle accelerator explode. How interesting. Kole, why would he do such a thing?"

The younger man paused for a moment as he considered the question and hypothesized about the possible outcomes at inhuman speeds. "Griffin, sir, I believe such an event would result in the altering of the DNA of the majority of the citizens of Central City."

"So, Dr. Harrison Wells is trying to create these . . . super-powered individuals." Griffin fingered the papers Kole had stolen from Dr. Wells's wheelchair. Dr. Wells had finished his announcement the night of what would be the particle accelerator explosion. "Why would he wish to bestow these powers upon the citizens of Central City?"

"I'm not sure," Kole answered, running his fingers through his platinum blond hair. His perfectly chiseled face showed no emotion as he studied the papers over his leader's shoulder.

"I believe," Griffin began, "we could use Dr. Wells's plan to our advantage. What if we had an army on our side––an army of these super-powered individuals. This new army is the key to finally taking over the city. With them and our previous recruits, we would be unstoppable. Is there a way to predict who receives super-powers?"

Kole answered after a moment. "Yes. Between the Central City Police Department and Central City Hospital we should be able to analyze many citizens' DNA to see if they have the ability to obtain the powers."

"Very good, Kole." Griffin was impressed, something that didn't happen often. "There is a problem. Can you access the records of both in time for the explosion tonight?"

"Yes. I will do so now if it is your command."

Griffin nodded, and less than a second later, Kole's eyes flitted wildly and randomly stared at distant corners of the STAR Labs storage closet they had snuck into. After nearly ten minutes of Kole's eyes twitching, he finally stopped. "I need paper and a pen. A _lot_ of paper. And sir?"

"Yes?"

"We need to hurry. There are at least eight super-powered citizens we must retrieve soon. Gather your forces. It is time for Thunder Corps to begin its reign."

* * *

Chapter 1

Off Track

Earlier that day

"I do believe the myth, 'Lightning does not strike in the same place twice.' You may be wondering, 'Has she ever been in school?'" Several people in the crowd chuckled. Detective Jones gave a hint of a smile, trying to conceal her nervousness for her first public speech. The sound of the audience's laughter helped calm her fears only momentarily. "For the record, I did go to school. However, I will continue with my scientific argument to prove my point to you all," she told the crowd with a chuckle. This speech had sounded much better in her head, and it was getting worse with every passing line. She hoped she would be able to turn this linguistic catastrophe into something that sounded like an inspirational college graduation speech.

Why did Captain Singh nominate me for this? she asked herself. It was her first public speech on such a large scale. As she was only a fledgling detective, she didn't have enough experience to rattle off anecdotes to the audience, so when the police captain asked her to deliver this speech, she was anything but enthusiastic. She thought of herself as a completely ordinary girl. Nothing tragic happened during her childhood. She didn't go to an Ivy League university. She hadn't even had a successful relationship yet. Why had Captain Singh picked her? Maybe the reason was because everyone else had an assignment.

Detective Jones's knuckles turned white as she gripped the podium like it was her only connection to her world as a black hole sucked everything else away into an abyss. The crowd was more like a raging ocean in a hurricane than people who had gathered for a speech. She smiled weakly. Her face felt as if it was dripping with sweat. She nervously continued, "That single lightning strike can symbolize the opportunities that are offered to us in life. There are chances to go to college, get a job, get married, have children, and the list goes on. What truly defines us is not the opportunities that are offered to us. Rather, it is the choice we make when those opportunities are offered." She uncapped her water bottle and took a quick sip. As she set the bottle down, she studied the audience. It was comprised of citizens of Central City ranging from newborns to senior citizens. These people had come hoping for a change in their crime-ridden city. She had become a detective to ignite a change in society. She wasn't about to let her dreams go to waste.

"We are the ones who decide how many chances we get and what ventures we take in life," she continued with newfound confidence. "We decide if that bolt of lightning, that opportunity, will be allowed to manifest itself in our lives, or if it will die as soon as it hits the ground. In today's world, many of us only take that one chance, which leads me to believe that lightning only strikes the same place once. All too often, we give up on our dreams and let them go wherever the wind takes them, whether because we are afraid of where they may take us, or we might be afraid about leaving our influence on the world in a way that would taint our memory. Today, I encourage all of you to stand, to take those opportunities in your life in a way that will benefit you and the world. Make that lightning strike twice. Make those opportunities come because of your tenacity, because if you can do that, gather the courage it takes to change the world, you can do anything." She began to stray from her notes. Detective Jones stared into the eyes of the crowd members, showing her sincerity and the importance of this event sponsored by the Central City Police Department.

"As a detective, I pray that I am always one to take the right choice, but when I don't, it is up to you, the community, to hold me accountable and help me get back on my feet and vice versa. I admit that I have made plenty of mistakes in my life, and I have been one to make that lightning strike only once, but to benefit the community, we must all become strong and take those chances to transform this world into one of hope, for it is not the police officers who truly change the community, it is the people of the community who must step up to offer that lifestyle adjustment. With you being the only people who can revolutionize this city, I plead that you would please try your hardest every day to take those opportunities to help people and change the world. It is for those few opportunities in life that I say, 'If I can change at least one person's life for the better, I must take that chanc—'"

"Hey!" An abrupt shout cut off Detective Jones. Every crowd member's head swiveled to the sidewalk across the street where a man had pulled out a gun. He was aiming it at a younger man in front of him who was carrying two bags of groceries. However, the younger man quickly dropped the groceries and put his hands in the air. The older man's words were inaudible from the distance, but Detective Jones knew it was no mere prank. She spoke into the microphone to the crowd members whose volume increased more dramatically by the second. "Calm down. Stay where you are. The CCPD will stop the threat shortly." Meanwhile, the sounds of radio statics from behind Detective Jones blared through the microphone. Beside the park where a session led by police about reducing the crime rate of Central City was not the best place for someone to commit a felony.

Detective Jones set her hand on her gun as she followed two deputies toward the crime. The younger man's hands remained in the air as the older one searched through a stolen wallet for anything of value. His peripheral vision allowed him to see the officers exiting the park and rushing toward him. He swiftly pocketed the wallet. "Drop the gun, and put your hands up!" Detective Jones shouted. The older man abruptly turned around and sprinted as quickly as he could. His corpulent figure made his getaway slower than he would have liked, and the police caught up to him, tackling him to the ground before he had a chance to turn and fire. His gun was abruptly snatched by the other deputy. "You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Everything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law." Detective Jones went on with the more familiar speech to the criminal as he was shoved into a police car where he commented, "I knew I should have waited until night."

The session at the park was cancelled without chance of rescheduling it. Detective Jones was disappointed with the session. She had thought of it as a way to finally end the crime in this city or at least get people to take a stand against it. It had ended up housing crime itself and scaring people out of taking a stand. Likely, the crowd members had completely forgotten her message due to the sudden attack. The poor city . . . what will become of it?

. . .

"Mr. Allen." Detective Jones leaned against the wooden doorway to the forensics lab. Barry Allen was testing substances from a case from early this morning. His light brown, combed hair and soft facial features gave him a caring yet ordinary look. He had innocent eyes, despite what Detective Jones had heard about his childhood. As a long-lasting member of the CCPD's crime unit, many officers knew about his tragic past; although, it was seldom discussed near the forensic scientist.

He glanced at her, set down his samples, and sauntered over. "You can call me Barry," he remarked with a wave of his hand. He set his hand on the desk, taking care to avoid knocking his favorite mug off. "Hey, Amara. I heard about the incident at the CCPD session today. How did that turn out?"

She sighed and looked to the ceiling, dwelling on the awful recollection of that day's events. "Well, the perp's locked up. No one got hurt. I think we're all good." She smiled, showing her brilliant white teeth and added, "Actually, I came here to ask you for your opinion on this case I've been working on." She handed him a thin case file. There had been almost no evidence for it. Amara had heard Barry was the person to go to when it came to cases with no leads. "I've been studying it, but I just can't find any leads. I know you're the master at this kind of thing, so I thought I would ask you what you thought about it."

He took it from her hand with nimble fingers and flipped through the file. "I'll look through it," he answered with a smile as he turned around to set it on his desk for later.

She nodded and added a smile of her own. "Thanks, Mr. Allen––I mean . . . Barry." He nodded in acknowledgement. She slowly walked out of the forensics lab after giving him a second glance. He would stop everything he was working on to assist someone else. Her lips curled into a smile, for the thought of such kindness seemed rare these days.

Amara glanced at the windows to see rain pouring and flashes of lightning. She shook her head in resigned awe. Central City always seemed to get rain when it didn't need it and droughts when they needed rain the most, even though it was a concrete jungle. As the saying goes, "If it rains, it pours."

The date was December 11th, 2013. STAR Labs was launching their particle accelerator. Barry had just returned from STAR Labs for Harrison Wells's speech and was now in the CCPD lab. Amara had little interest in the scientific matters. She was finishing her reports while lightning crashed outside.

Amara turned off her computer at the exact moment a wave of orange light burst through the city, enveloping everything in its path. It came from the direction of STAR Labs. Simultaneously, a torrent of light exploded in the forensics lab. The overwhelming sound of thunder immediately shot through the building and deafened people's hearing for the time being. Glass shattered in the lab, and some people screamed with the abrupt sound. Amara thrusted away her chair and sprinted over to the lab. She ran alongside fellow officers to survey the damage and check for injuries.

The floor of the lab was covered with water. A skylight was missing above the middle of the room. Amara stared at the spectacle, utterly absorbed by the destruction of what was practically her home, while officers attempted to revive Barry. There were some cuts on his face. Glass shards were scattered on his singed shirt. It was only earlier that day that she had given a speech about trying to get lightning to strike. At least it was in a figurative sense.

She was in a daze as she inspected the damage. Usually she had no trouble heading into danger, but this damage was comparable to losing a home to disaster. Her heart hammered in grief, but it was nothing compared to what she was about to feel.

The officers sprinted out of the room to alert Singh and call the hospital to request an ambulance. A chain dangled from the space where the skylight once was. Barry must have been trying to close it. When she looked to her right, she saw that Barry was sprawled across multiple shelves that once held chemicals. Splatters of the liquids were strewn across his face and arms. He must have been hit by the lightning that shattered the window. Why had Barry stayed so late? It took only a couple of seconds for her to answer her own question. He must have been working on another case, and it might have been mine.

Placed into yet another daze, this one of guilt, her eyes drifted to his still body.

I did this. This is my fault.

Amara forced herself to end her gawking at the tragedy before her and knelt beside Barry. She put her fingers to his neck. She only felt a strange vibrating that didn't seem to be a pulse.

Barry Allen is dead because of me.

Tears formed in her eyes and ran down her face as she knelt beside the poor man. She didn't know how long she stayed there by his side, lost in thought, but the next thing she knew, the officers were running back through the doorway, this time with a stretcher and emergency response workers. They loaded Barry onto the stretcher and took him away in hopes of reviving him.

As she stood up and backed away, her back brushed against the dangling chain and stayed there for the following minutes as she stood still. Amara thought about Barry's death and how quickly he had been taken from the world. He was young, about her age, and he was already gone, unless the paramedics could find some way to revive him. That could have happened to Amara if she had stayed in there with him.

It should have been me!

That kind young man didn't deserve to die in such an insignificant way. She turned around and grabbed the chain with both of her hands. If the table wasn't covered in broken glass and the chair broken in half, she would have sat down at the desk to collect her thoughts. Amara bowed her head and closed her eyes in pain of this recent loss. A thought crossed her mind. Lightning didn't strike short buildings often in Central City. What was the likelihood that lightning would strike Barry when taller structures surrounded the CCPD building? Maybe the lightning had something to do with the orange light that flooded the city.

The next moments were a paradox, faster than a single heartbeat and yet slower than the flap of a hummingbird's wings. The light came before the sound. After the light came the shock, the pain. Since it was so close, the thunder came seconds later as a deafening roar that reverberated against the walls. She could feel the surging, pounding pain that coursed throughout every organ, every muscle, every nerve in her body. She was thrown into the shelf in almost the same spot Barry had landed. The few remnants of chemicals dripped on her skin. She couldn't breathe. She could hardly think. With the second thunderclap inside the building that day, most of the people ignored it, thinking of it as just another coincidence. They must have thought that there was no one else in the lab because only one person came in: the janitor. The old, scrawny man was whistling, thinking it would only be a cleanup job for the broken glass and wet floor. He tersely stopped his whistling when he saw her now pale body on the shelves. He stood there in shock as her heartbeat slowed to what was almost nothing, or was it far too quick? After what she thought was hours of agony, he shouted, "We have an officer down!" As people rushed in, her consciousness faded out. She was paralyzed. Amara was left with a feeling that she would forever be alone with this torment, something that agonized her even more than the agony itself.

"Detective Jones, talk to me!"

Singh? Her lips couldn't form words. Were others talking? Her hearing faded. With her last bit of consciousness, she surprised herself with the thought, Lightning does strike in the same place twice.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Kidnapping

Clara Stonewell was a nurse at the Central City Hospital the day of the particle accelerator explosion, the machine that had caused the orange burst of light that shot through the city. After it exploded, the hospital had been overrun by people involved in vehicle crashes, seizures, and near-death experiences.

As a nurse, she did everything she could to save as many people as possible. That night, her heart was breaking. The hospital had already lost thirteen people with four more on their way to the hospital. She herself had already lost three people. Two had been in deadly car crashes. They had driven off the road due to loss of consciousness from the energy blast. The other one had been in an unfortunate accident from the blast. She couldn't bear to lose another.

"Clear!"

Maria, a fellow nurse and friend, used the defibrillator once again. The monitor continued to show a flatline.

"I can't lose another one!" Clara shouted as she slammed her fists against a nearby table. Tools clattered as they hit the floor. Maria continued CPR for another minute before she gave up. "I could have done more," She whispered as she peeled off her gloves, threw them in the trash can, and stormed out of the room for the fourth time that night.

Her back was practically plastered against the wall for what must have been a long time. Her head was in her tear-filled hands. The sobs racked her spine against the wall, but the pain inside her heart significantly outweighed the pain in her back. Clara hated losing people she tried to save. It was her job to help them. A woman who had served Central City was taken from this world far too soon. Clara could hear Maria state inside the room, "Time of death: 10:45 P.M."

"I could help you get her back."

She turned around to see a tall man with sharp features and blond hair. His skin seemed too flawless to be real. He wore black clothes with what appeared to be a bulletproof vest underneath. Some kind of medallion was pinned to his shirt. A lightning bolt emerging from clouds was engraved on the medal. How ironic. Her eyes followed his hidden hand to beneath his trench coat which held a gun pointed at her stomach.

"What do you mean you can get her back? Who are you?"

"My name is . . . Doctor. Dr. Kole."

"Doctor who?" she asked, her gaze transfixed on the weapon still aimed at her.

"You're Clara Oswald, correct?"

"Clara Stonewell," she corrected. "How do you know my name?"

"I have my sources." He continued coolly, "Our lab is a center for learning and expedition in all kinds of science." His voice seemed to be too idyllic. "That girl is not dead. Her heartbeat is too quick for your heart monitors to pick up. She is in a constant state of change. If you give her to me, I can ensure that she will live and thrive at my laboratory." Clara doubted any possibility of willingly giving Miss Jones's corpse to him for whatever purposes he had for her; although, he had surprised Clara when he stated she wasn't dead. The heart monitor couldn't have been wrong . . . could it?

"She's not dead?" There were some strange events that occurred that night, but that was the strangest by far.

He appeared exasperated by her prattle. "No. She is merely in a coma. Will you give her to us?"

Without this man, Miss Jones could die, if she wasn't dead already. No one had come to see her yet. No one had called. She assumed Miss Jones had no family or friends who knew about her incident except for the people who called for an ambulance. Still, it wasn't right to give her to this man.

Clara's gaze bored into him, unwavering. If the people of the world were so corrupt, someone had to stand for what was right.

She made her eyes turn from the barrel of the gun to his cold eyes. "I can't let you take her."

"That's too bad; you seemed like you were a smart girl, smarter than most." He glanced at the empty hallways. Clara stood firm.

"Tell me, where is the man who goes by the name of Barry Allen?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Eight

Kole's crew had helped delete the hospital security footage and load the deceased nurse and Amara Jones into the van. Seven other people who were affected by the particle accelerator explosion had also been collected. They were in different vehicles, but all were headed to the same location.

Amara Jones was transported to the van that had been waiting in the parking lot ever since Kole's organization knew that the particle accelerator would explode.

Kole thought, _The__boss will not be pleased when he discovers that I was not able to obtain Barry Allen._

The late nurse was thrown out of the truck as soon as Kole's van was far enough away from the hospital. She told Kole with her final breath that Harrison Wells already brought Barry Allen to STAR Labs and that Kole would never get him or anyone else for their sick purposes.

Kole's van continued its ride back to the laboratory. Silence was their blanket in the cool night. No one talked, not even the rookie guards who had been speedily employed for this remarkable opportunity. They had gotten into the organization without proper training, which Kole predicted would ultimately lead to their doom. At least they knew that anyone who interrupted silence without a plausible argument for it would not be allowed to continue with the organization . . . or life.

A strange beeping interrupted the silence. The girl's heart rate appeared on the monitor that had been set up in the van. She hadn't had a heartbeat for at least twenty minutes, according to the pulse oximeter. The pulse oximeter was practically infallible. After a few moments of uneasy silence from the rookies, some of them began to shout when she started disappearing. It was as if she was fazing through everything. She almost fell through the stretcher she lay on. The pulse oximeter fell off her hand. No one had touched it. The IV fluids needle fell out of her arm, even though no one pulled it out. The guards began to pull out their guns and aim at her.

"Don't shoot," Kole commanded, worry absent from his voice.

Kole reached his hand out to try to stop the shaking. The guards watched, wide-eyed, as his hand went through her arm. Kole jerked his hand away and held it before his eyes. It was still there. Nervousness was beginning to show on his face, but it was nothing compared to the guards' expressions. No one dared touch her for the remainder of the ride, even if she began to fall through the floor of the van and onto the street below. Everyone figured it would be better to let her die than get affected by whatever strange phenomenon was happening to her.

Her shaking began to subside after a couple of minutes. The doctor in the van put the IV fluid needle back in her arm and the pulse oximeter on her finger. "I don't understand how she did this!" he exclaimed. That night, he had seen something that most people never even begin to imagine in their entire lifetime.

For the duration of the ride, the guards eyed her warily. They were scared out of their minds. The doctor watched her with a perplexed expression whenever he laid his eyes on her.

The boss had told Kole what to say to the nurse, but that didn't help him understand anything any better. How was this girl still alive? She had already experienced three seizures since she was hit by lightning. She had mistakenly been pronounced dead. Most of the time, she had no detectable pulse. What was the particle accelerator doing to her?

"Put her on the table. I want to know everything about her condition," a man directed.

The men followed his orders, as always. They feared what he would do to them if they didn't. Griffin Campbell had been the director of the lab and this organization for years now. He was a cruel man with wrinkles that were the opposite of smile lines.

When they finished hooking the woman up to the machines, Griffin noticed that she had no heartbeat.

"Did you bring me a dead girl? I told you to bring me Amara Jones! How is this husk Amara Jones?" Griffin demanded while pounding his fists against the bed. He pulled his handgun out of his belt and pointed it at one of the rookies. "Is this Amara Jones?"

"Excuse me, sir," uttered his most trusted lieutenant, Kole.

"What is it?"

He tilted his head in confusion. "She's not dead. Remember, you demanded that I should tell the nurse that her heartbeat was too quick to pick up on the heart monitor."

"Oh, yes. I forgot," he muttered as he pressed his fingers to his head.

Shaking it off, Griffin looked down at the woman. She was the eighth person they had brought in within the last couple hours who was affected by the particle accelerator explosion. He felt he needed to find some way to remember this woman even with his recent gaffes. "We will call her Eight," he announced to the people surrounding him. They stared straight ahead and said nothing.

After a few moments, the doctor spoke. He glanced looked around, and then opened his mouth with trepidation. "She is in a coma. We don't know how long she will be in it. We'll have to wait it out. That is, if she does wake up."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Broken

Joe West arrived at the police station to a state of chaos and depression. His partner, Detective Fred Chyre, had died that night. Clyde Mardon and his brother had gotten away after shooting Chyre, but their plane had crashed due to some kind of orange light explosion. Joe didn't know that he was about to receive news that would make his evening even worse.

Singh came to him when Joe stepped out of the elevator. Joe was already devastated from the loss of his partner, and to find the captain there, not offering the comfort he had expected, lowered his spirits even more. He set his hand on Joe's shoulder as if to say, "I'm sorry for your loss." This was different than saying that though. His eyes watered, like something was bothering him personally.

"Did something else happen?" Joe inquired, his eyes wrinkling at the edges with panic creeping in.

Singh sighed and looked down. "There was an incident in the forensics lab." Joe's heart skipped a beat. He continued, "Barry and Detective Jones were struck by lightning that was generated during the particle accelerator explosion. They are in critical condition at Central City Hospital."

Joe's eyes widened, but he set those fears aside and pushed his way over to his desk through the people who wanted to give him their condolences. He sat down to absorb this information that had gathered on him. His partner had just died. His adopted son and one of their own had been struck by lightning. What could have been a revolutionary machine exploded, killing many people in the city.

What am I gonna tell Iris?

Joe let his head fall into his trembling hands. He never cried at work, but that night was too much. He felt as if everything in his world was going as wrong as it possibly could. When he was done letting out his emotions, he stood up, grabbed his jacket, and stormed out of the station. No one tried to stop him.

_I need to see Barry. I need to see Barry. I need to see Barry._

That was all he thought about the night his life shattered.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Fallen Heroes

"As most of you know, we lost two heroes in our city last night. One of these heroes was Detective Fred Chyre. The other was Detective Jones. Detective Fred Chyre died last night when he was shot by Clyde Mardon. He died a hero, defending our city in the fight against crime. Detective Jones and Barry Allen were both struck by lightning last night in the forensics lab. We received word from the hospital that Detective Jones passed away late last night." Several officers who hadn't heard the news covered their mouths with their hands. Iris had heard about her from Barry before but didn't know her personally. She was told that she was kindhearted and always stood for the city. It was always sad for her to hear about officers who died due to unfortunate accidents. However, as sad as it was, she wasn't there to listen to what happened to Detective Jones. She was waiting to hear an update on Barry's condition.

"We express our deepest condolences to Detective Jones's friends and family," Singh continued somberly. "Barry Allen went through multiple seizers last night. Currently, he is in the care of STAR Labs and is in a coma. Other than that, we don't know his condition." Singh continued, but Iris couldn't tear her thoughts off Barry. She left the room to see him at STAR Labs.

**A/N: Sorry about there being some short chapters, but it's better than scrolling endlessly, right?**


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Awaken

9 Months Later

Amara's eyes fluttered open and tried to adjust to the brightness of the lights above her. She then sat up straight with the realization that this room was unfamiliar and that she had no recollection of getting there.

"Someone tell me where I am!" she demanded. Amara glanced around the room. There was almost nothing inside except for tables covered with ominous tools. The floor was a dull linoleum sheet that contributed to the dreary feel of the creepy hospital-like setting. The white, peeling walls were barren except for small cracks that showed in the painted brick and plenty of outlets that lined the bottom of the wall.

With her being a detective, she was always prepared for the worst, especially in a crime-ridden city. But being kidnapped? That didn't happen often. Especially since her last memory was of her being struck by lightning.

The door creaked open, and men dressed in lab coats strode in. "She's awake, sir," one man announced as he ominously slapped on a mask and gloves.

Another man stepped forward. He was obviously the leader, told by his demeanor and his upturned nose. "I want you to find what abilities she was granted by the particle accelerator." It wasn't long before one of the men injected her with some sort of liquid. Shortly after, she fell back down to the table, and her eyes closed again.

2 days later

Amara held her breath as yet another needle pierced her skin. Her arm was already sore from the other fifteen injections and phlebotomies she had gotten within the last two days. This syringe was meant for another phlebotomy, and the needle penetrating her arm was horrifyingly large. She winced for a moment as the blood was drawn from her arm for yet another test. When the doctor was done, he withdrew the needle and prepared the sample for testing. Kole stood beside him with his hand resting on a 45-caliber gun able to blast a hole through either hers or the doctor's chest if either made any move Kole didn't like.

"Change," Kole ordered, throwing a black suit on her. She had already learned what happened when she didn't listen to him. Yesterday, she had refused to obey these kidnappers which resulted in them injecting her with a solution which caused her senses to explode with over-awareness. Any sound, even the taps of shoes, was too much to bear. She had squeezed her eyes shut so as to avoid any light. Light was excruciating. She didn't dare take more than one breath once she realized the moldy smell that permeated the building was now torturous. Even the taste of saliva on her tongue was horrible. She spat. She kept her eyes closed. She held her breath. She forced herself to stand, making the least amount of skin touch the ground as possible, until the pain forced her to fall. Covering her ears only made her sense of touch more agonizing. She screamed. That hurt her ears. The pain seemed to last forever, but it slowly faded away. With her senses amplified, she was unable to pass out. She was forced to endure every painful moment of it. All the while, Kole watched, grinning. He reveled in her pain, her distress because his boss, Griffin, relished it. Though Amara rarely saw Griffin in person, she knew he was behind her pain. He was always behind a one-way mirror, a door, something. He was to blame for what happened to her. Kole was only an instrument. He followed Griffin's orders as if they were computer coding. Amara didn't know how long it took for the injection to wear off, but it didn't matter. She just knew it had lasted too long. It just did. And it always would.

"Send her back to her cell," Griffin ordered his minions.

The soldiers had obeyed him like dogs, immediately leaping to Amara, grabbing her arms and hoisting her up. She could no longer stand and felt everything as if in a fog. Her knees scraped against the ground, but that pain was miniscule to the pain she had felt. Her head hung with her black, greasy hair falling over her face. She could almost sense Griffin smiling at her from behind.

From the past few days she had mapped out as much of the compound as she could. She noticed that her private cell was on the opposite side of the compound from the previous chamber. She would practically be paraded through the compound the entire way.

The minions finally thrusted her into a cell with a cold cement floor that scraped her legs up even more. There seemed to be no hope of escape. Metal bars surrounded even the other three concrete walls and the cell opening. If she tried to use her powers inside, the lightning from her powers would be absorbed into the bars and thrown back at her with increased fury. She had tried it once. It felt like she had been hit with lightning again, and she never wanted to experience it another time.

Amara held hope, little though it was, that she would get back to her life one day. But it was fading. And fast.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Fetch

3 days later

"I want you to fetch this piece of tech for me, Eight."

"What happens if I refuse your kind suggestion?" Amara asked Griffin with a sassy tone. She had finally discovered a way to get some fun out of that horrible laboratory. She could annoy Griffin to death. Of course, at that point, she was trying it for the first time. Once she looked back on it, she realized that it wasn't a great idea.

Griffin brought his marred hand back and slapped it across her face with such force that her head whipped back. She couldn't do anything to stop him, even with her newly discovered powers. Guns were pointed at her from all directions. She was tied to a chair.

Can this get any worse? ––Never mind. Asking that always makes it worse.

The side of her face felt as if it was burning, but she just kept her head down and winced the pain off, as much as she could wince anyway with that burning feeling. Her hair fell in front of her face and covered her vision. She hadn't been allowed to take a shower. She felt grimy, but she mostly felt as though all hope was lost. She doubted she would ever come out of this laboratory alive except for immoral tasks assigned by this cruel man. Only three days ago she had hope, but three consecutive days of the sensory injections changed her outlook on life.

She noticed Griffin was looking at her expectantly. "I'll do it," she responded gruffly. Only three days of torture had changed her only goal to dying in the least painful way.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Faster

3 weeks later

"Faster, Barry! If you want to get better, you must work at it, even if you _are_ the fastest man alive," Harrison Wells demanded on the coms.

"Don't make Barry angry! He might turn green!" Cisco remarked with a laugh on the coms.

"What are you guys talking about?" Barry asked them curiously. Cisco had a hundred more references tucked up his sleeve than Barry.

Cisco spoke again over the communicator as Barry ran back to STAR Labs. "Barry, you just ruined my day. Don't tell me you didn't get that reference."

Caitlin laughed on the coms. Barry was surprised she understood Cisco's reference with her being more infatuated with science than comic books.

Speaking of superheroes, Barry had been the Flash for about three months. Recently, there had been attacks on labs and technology companies across the country. Barry hadn't met the thief yet because he was too fast even for the Flash. Every time the Flash got close to the scene, the villain escaped with the stolen item. Security cameras were not quick enough to discern the speedster's face for facial recognition.

Barry was running back to STAR Labs after defeating a different metahuman from a heist. The team was waiting for him there; although, they wouldn't have to wait long. As Barry approached the building, he noticed something was wrong. The security cameras around the building were down. The coms were completely silent. Barry slowed to a walk as he approached the Cortex. Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco were knocked out. Barry knelt beside them and checked for their pulses, then sighed, thankful for the realization that this speedster was not one to murder hostages.

"Hello there, Flash," someone declared in a feminine voice.

Barry spun around to see a woman standing before him with lightning that swirled around her. Her eyes were windows to concealed pain. Her dark hair was tangled and put up in a messy ponytail. Her gaunt, ashen form smelled of body odor. She wore a black off-the-shoulder suit. It was made of a material that was much like what Cisco had used for Barry's suit: friction-proof material. A metal insignia on the front that showed a cloud with a lightning bolt coming down from it was pinned in the middle of her chest. Barry couldn't tell who she was even without a mask, but he thought her voice sounded vaguely familiar.

"You're the speedster? You're a girl?" he questioned. His eyebrows under his mask rose. "Why did you knock out my friends if you can just run out with that technology you stole?"

"I'm just following orders." She darted past Barry, pushing him into the desk. She was out of the building before Barry could push himself back up.

Rubbing his back, Barry stood up and watched the doorway, knowing he had lost the thief.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Intruder–No Alert

"We need to find her, Wells. She's malnourished, she's been brainwashed, and I'm sure there are plenty of other things that have been done to her." Barry was almost to the point of begging. His mind could not forget the woman's empty gaze. Wells would not allow Barry to search for her, for he stated that whoever was behind her unfortunate history was likely hoping to get the Flash under his control too. That was why Barry was working with Cisco secretlt.

"I've got something," Cisco spoke when Wells left.

The next time Barry was seen by Cisco was when Barry was standing in front of him. That was followed by a flash of lightning and Barry standing over Cisco's shoulder. "What've you got?" Barry asked from behind Cisco's chair.

"Please. Stop. Doing that! Ugh! Anyway," Cisco shot Barry an angry glare over his shoulder, "She's––wait, nope. She _was_ at Palmer Tech, but she was in and out like that." Cisco snapped his fingers for emphasis.

"_Come on_, Cisco!" Barry slapped his hands over his face after another opportunity slipped through his fingers.

"Wait," Cisco held his hands in the air. "There's someone at our front door. She just walked in. Where's the security we installed in this building? If I hadn't been monitoring it . . . I'm talking to myself now, aren't I?" Barry had already left the room to investigate the intrusion.

The female speedster from the previous meeting stood before Flash. She looked the same except her left eye was swollen in addition to part of her lip. She steadily advanced toward the Flash. He noticed she had a slight limp in her right leg, and she was cradling her left arm. She stopped five feet away from him and began to speak. "I can't take this anymore. I did everything he told me to do, but he enjoys pain." Her eyes shifted downward.

"Who's 'he'?" Barry questioned. He eyed her injuries with a concerned gaze.

"Griffin, the man who ruined my life." She continued, "I was a cop. I loved doing what was right. I loved the law. Griffin makes me steal and hurt people. Today I almost killed someone." She began to break into tears. "I can't let myself go on like this. Last time I was here, Griffin ordered me to knock them out so they didn't stop me. I need you . . . I need you to stop me before Griffin makes me go beyond the point of no return."

Barry's eyes showed his sympathy to her, but he already knew his answer. "I'm not going to do that. That would make me as guilty as it would have made you had you committed murder earlier. But you are welcome to stay at STAR Labs until you can get back on your feet."

"But Griffin will––"

"We'll keep you safe."

Her eyes shone with hope for the first time in a long while. "Are you sure?"

"It will be as you wish," Barry replied with a soft smile.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Gone in a Flash

2 weeks later

"Why would you bring her here?" Wells yelled. "Furthermore, why would you let her stay here outside of a cell? Right now, she's probably gathering our names, discovering your identity, and feeding this information to this . . . Griffin!"

Amara had revealed her identity to Flash after he had taken her into the Flash family.

Amara waltzed into the Cortex holding a pizza pocket. The pizza pockets were Caitlin's, and everyone marveled that the scientist hadn't demanded repercussions for Amara's thievery of the beloved pockets. Cisco scoffed every time Amara munched on Caitlin's food without fault in Caitlin's eyes because whenever he tried to sneak in a snack, she scolded him.

Amara had been on Team Flash for two weeks. Still, they had not come to an agreement on what to do with her. Barry and Cisco thought she should stay. Cisco hoped to ask her out when the time came. Caitlin thought she could stay, but only until she got a job and an apartment. Wells thought she should be thrown out of the nest like a baby bird unable to fly.

Amara's mouth was full as she spoke, "Hi, Wells. Anything new today?" She answered her own question with, "Nope. Wells and Barry arguing: check. Cisco enviously staring at my pizza pocket: check. Caitlin walking out of the room because she's tired of you boys arguing: check." Amara was right on cue as Caitlin egressed with her hands over her ears.

"Amara, will you please . . . wait, did you just call him Barry?" Wells's nervousness showed in his eyes. Barry had worn his suit with the mask on whenever he visited STAR Labs almost constantly because of Wells's concerns.

"I did," she replied simply. "It's amazing that you guys thought I wouldn't discover his identity when you talk about your personal problems in your free time. Iris West. Forensics Unit. Joe West. I didn't become a detective without having brains. I _solved_ cases."

"See, Barry, she discovered your identity. What's next? Will she kill us in our sleep?" Wells threw his hands up in frustration.

Amara swallowed her bite of pizza pocket and shook the remaining part of it at Wells. "How dare you suggest that I would kill the people who helped me get away from that egotistical maniac!" She added quietly, "Even though you're not much better."

"How dare you come here, drink our coffee, eat our food, and sleep in our lab when you stole technology for that 'egotistical maniac'!" Wells counterattacked. Cisco shrunk into his chair, attempting to disappear beneath the desk. Barry stood, helpless, by the doorway of the med bay.

Amara yelled, "If you want me gone so much, I'll leave! No one in this world wants me anyway!" Her eyes began to water as she stared down Wells. As a tear was released from her eye, she left as quickly as she had come into their lives: in a flash.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The End

Amara stood on one of the two major bridges that connected Central and Keystone City. She was wearing a STAR Labs t-shirt, white pants from the lab, and an old pair of white tennis shoes left over from storage from before the particle accelerator explosion. She had left STAR Labs only seconds ago, but to a speedster, it felt much longer.

Amara stood on the sidewalk on the bridge overlooking the river. It was beautiful, especially during the current sunset. The water shimmered with yellows and oranges reflected from the sky. The easternmost parts of the water were blue and purple. Ships crowded around the docks, mostly small boats owned by regular citizens. The city looked too normal at a glance to be the host of real superheroes and villains. Who knew that the comics children had grown up reading in Central City would become real, almost too real. Powers weren't as cool as they seemed. They had ripped her life apart, torn away any sense of normalcy. She had wanted to be a superhero as a kid, whether she flew through the skies or swung between buildings.

Amara didn't know whether to think of herself as a hero or villain. In the comics the characters always seemed to be one or the other. She had stolen technology but only to stay alive. She had helped the Flash out a couple of times during her short stay at STAR Labs. Still, being a hero or villain wasn't the problem. No matter what she did, no one cared about her. Griffin thought of her as a tool that he would use for some horrifying experiment once her thieving uses were expelled. Amara thought the only reason she stayed with Griffin for so long was that it gave her a purpose, as wrong and as meaningless as it was. Could she have done anything different? What if she had tried harder to solve the case she had asked Barry to help her with? Then Barry would not have been in the forensics lab. He wouldn't have gotten struck by lightning, and by extension, she too. Griffin wouldn't have kidnapped her. She might have been working at the CCPD to this day. But Central City wouldn't have the Flash. The metahumans would have taken it over. But at least she wouldn't be standing on this bridge, thinking about "what if?"

Wells thought she should be left to fend for herself. Barry seemed to care, but not enough to jeopardize his standing with Wells. Barry always wanted to get faster, and Wells was the only one who seemed to be able to help him. Cisco seemed to have a fantasy of her in his mind, but he wouldn't go to the ends of the Earth for her. Caitlin was kind but would probably send her blessings as Amara headed out alone.

Then there were Amara's parents. She hadn't seen, heard, or talked to them since she left the house for college at eighteen. They were from separate poor Chicago neighborhoods. Despite this, she had a great childhood until she was sixteen. That was when her parents began fighting. Shortly after they began, it ended with their divorce. She struggled for her last two years before leaving her parents. After she left, she never looked back, hoping to never again hear the yelling in her ears or in her memory. Even after she was freed from Griffin, she never paid them a visit to explain what happened to her. As far as she was concerned, her parents thought she died that December night at the hospital.

So, there she was: staring off into the fiery waters of the river below her. She wondered, _What would happen if I jumped? Would anyone know? Would anyone care?_ She took a step closer to the railing, studying the miniature waves on the water. She felt that there was no way she could progress with her life. Her career seemed to be over. She set a foot on the railing. Her work with Griffin was definitely done. She wasn't going back there. STAR Labs wasn't her real home. Wells might as well have killed her, he hated her so much. She put another foot on the railing. Her hands gripped the top of it. Her knuckles turned white. So, this was how it would end. A watery doom that she had passed by on her way to work every day. She lifted her right leg over the railing, then the other, sitting side-saddle with her feet toward the road. She took a deep breath that was full of hesitation. People on the road began to point. She then lowed her legs onto the side of the railing farthest from the road. Amara felt like Rose from the Titanic. She lifted her head, enjoying what might be the last breeze to rustle her hair. Suddenly, a police officer gently called from behind her, "Hey, can you come back over here?" He must have been trying to follow protocol. Amara hated the way he talked to her as though she was a five-year-old.

"I _can_ come back over there," Amara replied softly. She hadn't noticed until now that she had been weeping. "but that doesn't mean that I _want_ to."

"Why do you not want to?" he asked. Amara felt she recognized the voice, but she could not place it.

She felt like a kid again with the way this officer was speaking and from the way she was responding. "No one cares about me."

"I care about you," the officer replied.

"You're lying. You only want me to not do this because it's your job. You don't even know my name."

"What is your name, then?" he asked.

She hesitated for a moment before answering. "It's . . . Amara. Amara Jones."

The officer didn't speak for a moment. Amara wondered if he remembered her from the CCPD. The cop spoke more quietly this time. "Please step back over the railing. We can sort this out when you're on the sidewalk, okay?"

Amara stared at the water, wondering how far gone she was to be doing this. Maybe she could find some way to reconcile with Wells. Maybe there was still hope . . .

Amara slowly lifted one leg, then the next back over the railing. She averted her gaze from the officer. She had hit rock bottom. The tears began to come again. She wondered if there was some way she could permanently keep herself from crying. It was getting tiring. She finally gathered the courage to lift her eyes. First, she looked at the small crowd that had gathered. Unable to watch the worried faces of civilians she had helped a year ago, she glumly turned her gaze to the officer. He had black hair and a slight goatee. He wore a formal shirt and tie. His police car was parked behind him with the driver's side door still open. Amara recognized this man. He was Captain Singh. Her eyes were wide with amazement and hope. She asked, "Do you . . . do you recognize me?"

Singh's lips were compressed into a slight smile that showed happiness and sorrow simultaneously. "I do. I thought you were dead, but there've been plenty of strange events ever since the particle accelerator explosion. If you want to talk about this, any of what has happened, just let me know."

The embarrassment was beginning to overwhelm Amara. Her old boss was trying to talk her out of jumping off a bridge. "Bye." She wanted to run away as fast as she could, but she couldn't risk revealing that she was a speedster. So, she began to walk away as Singh spoke to her.

"If you would like to come back to the precinct and talk about getting your old position back, we can discuss it. It might be tough, considering you're legally dead, but we can sort it out. Don't tell anyone else, but you were my favorite new recruit." Amara looked back to see a full smile on his face. The corner of her lip turned in the slightest smile. Then, she began a tedious walk to get out of view so she could use her powers. Amara knew what she had to do.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Acceler8

"Cisco, what are you humming?" Amara asked him. It was one week after the bridge incident. She hadn't told anyone about it. Cisco was making something for Amara. She supposed it was to lift her spirits.

Even though it had only been three weeks since she escaped Griffin's clutches, she had recovered well. Her skin had become darker. The dark circles under her eyes disappeared. She ate enough to make up for much of her malnutrition. However, nothing would eliminate her terrifying memories of what Griffin put her through.

Amara snapped back to attention when Cisco replied, "It's _Believe it or Not_ from Greatest American Hero." Seconds after, he exclaimed, "It's ready!"

Her eyes widened as he held it up. Just looking at the suit at a glance showed how much effort Cisco put into it. It was black with white lines that stretched out near the shoulders in graceful curves. White lines ran along the arms of the suit. The lightning earpieces were silver.

"I . . . love . . . it!" Amara wanted to tell him. The suit was the perfect representation of her fight between light and dark, figuratively and literally. She also wanted to ball her fists and jump up and down, but in light of her recent dark experiences, she couldn't bring herself to express full-on joy. For the past two weeks she had to wear her costume from Thunder Corps. She had wanted to leave that life behind as soon as possible. At that moment, she just continued to stare, unable to say anything.

"Do you like it?" Cisco asked her cautiously. She didn't respond. For the past year, she wasn't allowed to speak unless spoken to in a way that required an answer that was necessary. Responding to such a ridiculous question seemed preposterous. Why waste one's energy on a question like that?

_Stop thinking like Griffin_, she told herself. She doubted his grip would ever leave her. She tried to shake off the indoctrinated thoughts that were continuously popping into her head. Instead, she focused on something that could hopefully bring her spirits up. She had been called Eight only weeks ago.

_What if I turned my painful history against them?_

"My alter ego will be Acceler8," she told Cisco.

"Accelerate?" he asked her. He uncapped a marker and began to write it on his board. "Accelerate_,__" _was how he wrote it. At that point, Cisco didn't know that her previous false name had been Eight.

She shook her head. "No. It has an eight at the end." She tenderly took the marker, crossed out Accelerate, and wrote, "Acceler8."

The use of her previous name in that way gave her a small sense of pride. Something good had finally come out of that torturous experience at that lab.

He smiled at her. "That had better fit because that's hard to adjust for sizing." She waited for a moment as Cisco stood staring at her expectantly.

"What?" she asked him.

"Put it on." He rolled his eyes. She wasn't used to social interaction yet. She started to walk to the restrooms when Cisco pointed out that since she was faster than sound, she could change right there.

"I'm not comfortable with changing in the Cortex. It's weird," she complained.

"I'll turn around, but you're a speedster and you'll have to get used to changing on the go." Cisco turned his back as she changed in less than a second.

Amara turned around, admiring the functionality of the piece of clothing. Cisco's eyes were wide. She was terrified that she had a wardrobe malfunction, so she whipped around in a tornado of lightning. "No, no, it's fine," Cisco assured her.

She sheepishly turned around again. "Why were your eyes wide?"

He explained, "Oh. I was just happy that it fit. That saves me a lot of work."

"That still doesn't explain why your eyes were so wide," she continued.

"It just looks . . . great." He had a proud look in his eyes, or maybe it was something that she hadn't seen since high school, a little something called a crush. He continued, "You're gonna be a real hero."

Wells entered the Cortex on his motorized wheelchair and gave Cisco a stern look. "She is not a hero, Cisco; she never will be."

Amara ceased her admiration. Those words stung the deepest parts of her heart. Then, Cisco leaned in and told her, "He's just grumpy. He must have missed his cup of joe." He leaned in even more and whispered, "Quid pro quo. I made you the suit, now we have to go on a date." He lifted his eyebrows twice as if that method of flirtation would be successful.

Amazed, her eyes widened at his abrupt suggestion of a date. No one had asked her out for a long time, mostly because of her coma and being holed up at that other laboratory, but also because she had no intention of dating ever since she left high school. She was still hurt from Wells's comment but rolled her eyes and told him, "Okay, I guess so. Just remember, I haven't gone on a date for a while. I don't know how to start a good conversation."

"That's fine. We'll make due." He gave her a cheesy, cute smile that gave her blush. She pushed away Wells's comment and began to think of their date.

1 week later

"So, this . . . spinning motion that you do with your arms, what do you call that?"

Barry shrugged. "I call them "whirlwinds," but it doesn't have the right ring to it," he answered.

"Mm," Amara voiced, taking a sip of her Jitter's coffee, "I like to think of them as wind funnels."

"That's a good idea. Maybe I should rename mine."

"If you do rename it, remember it was my idea." She proudly pointed at her chest and sat straight up. She stuck her nose up in the air as if to imitate one of the richest people in the country.

"Are you trying to be Oliver Queen? Ha! That's pretty funny. He doesn't act like that." He glanced around to see if anyone was watching, then he pulled his arm back and acted like he was using a bow and arrow.

"So, what? Is he supposed to be like Robin Hood, giving to the poor and all?" She raised her eyebrows. She had viewed Oliver Queen as some rich, spoiled brat, even though he had been stranded on an island for five years.

He leaned in and whispered to her, "Are you good at keeping secrets?"

She gave him a look that said, "Seriously? I'm a superhero with a secret identity, and you are asking me if I can keep a secret?"

He chuckled for a moment and spoke again. "Have you heard of the Arrow?" She thought she saw some headline about that vigilante in Starling City. She nodded. He continued in a whisper, "Oliver Queen is the Arrow."

Amara blinked for a moment. She had figured out who the Flash was, but she didn't suspect, even for a moment, that the Arrow was one and the same as Oliver Queen. She shook her head as her eyes widened. "Whew. That is a lot to take in. I guess he's not such a spoiled brat. Why did you decide to tell me?"

"If you're going to be on the team, I thought you should know. Someday Team Flash might team up with him. You should know his identity so you two can trust each other."

They continued playing their game of charades of villains and vigilantes. They both laughed at their childish actions.

_It's fun to have fun again!_

She told him, "I'm glad that we came here for a break after taking down that villain. I've noticed that when I use my speed powers, I get hungry pretty quickly. Coffee at least soothes that hunger a little bit."

"Yeah. The hunger is just part of being a speedster. The high metabolism comes with the fast body. Try going to a restaurant on a date some day when you have to get five plates of food," he told her. "I'm sure Iris likes it when she invites me to eat with Eddie and her, and I have to get six Big Belly Burgers. I can still remember Eddie's face one time when he saw me eat eight burgers and not gain a pound."

After sharing a laugh, she took another sip. "What kind of coffee did you get anyway?" Barry asked as he leaned over to look in her mug.

"House blend."

"Hmm," he remarked, taking another sip. "Why get something so normal?"

She whispered, "With being a superhero, I want to do anything I can to be at least a little normal."

"That's a good point."

"At least I added some sugar and cream," she told him before she took another sip.

"Don't you mean cream and sugar?"

"Eh."

"I didn't enjoy coffee until Iris got me into it," he remarked, thinking about another time.

"You and Iris West grew up like siblings, except that you were brought into the West family. If you have a crush on her, wouldn't that make it be a crush on your sister?" Amara lifted an eyebrow.

"First of all, we aren't really siblings. Second, I think I've moved on. I have to learn to cope with Iris liking Eddie, and I wanted her to be happy. I don't want to go spoiling her relationship, or I wouldn't be able to be truly happy living with a depressed wife all my life."

"Well said," Amara pointed out, taking the last sip of her coffee. They sat in silence for a moment. Amara was waiting for Barry to speak, but he seemed to be waiting for the same from her. "What is it?" she finally asked.

He tried to reply, "Well, thanks for asking, but I got decaf," but he chuckled at the end.

"Why are you laughing?"

"You usually like to find out everything about a person, but you immediately moved the subject to Iris and me. Are you jealous?" His eyes narrowed.

"N-no. Of course not. I . . . I have a lot to do, so I'm just gonna––" She was unable to control the blushing that flooded her cheeks which brought back her erythrophobia. She had thought that was long gone.

"I've gotten under your skin! I thought it could never be done. Well, Amara Jones, today, victory is mine." He shot her a sly smile at which she scowled.

"This isn't over yet, Barry Allen. Someday, mark my words, I will race you for this victory." They stared at each other dramatically for a moment before they hysterically laughed.

"_Now_ you sound like Oliver Queen," he exclaimed, chuckling.

They both joked in bliss as they enjoyed a moment without criminals, drama, or anything that normally came with their superhero lives.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

"Let's do this again sometime."

1 week later

The candle light on their table went out . . . again. Cisco and Amara were having the date Amara agreed to two weeks ago. She didn't have it in her. Something just didn't seem right about going on a date with Cisco. He was cute, but sparks were not flying.

"If this is a date, don't you think that we should, you know, talk to each other?" he asked her. She lifted her head from her propped-up hand.

"Oh, yeah. What do you think we should talk about?"

He gave her a strange look that said, "Have you ever been on a date before?" He thought for a moment and asked, "What's your favorite movie?"

"Aw . . . man, there's so many. I would say The Princess Bride, but it might change depending on my mood," she replied.

"That was my favorite sick day movie!" He held up his hand for a high five. Amara thought it was a bit childish, but she returned the high five. He paused with his hand on hers and stared absently at her. He seemed to be in shock for some reason. She was about to wave her other hand in front of his face, except that he suddenly blinked and snapped his attention back to her. When he recovered, he gave her an expectant look.

After a few moments of him waiting, she finally realized that he was waiting for her to ask him a question. "Oh. What's your favorite movie?"

He sighed. This was the worst date ever. "Maybe we should just talk about work, if you know what I mean." Cisco shot her a conspicuous wink.

She leaned across the table and gave him a serious glare. She needed him to know that this was important. "Cisco." When she had his full attention, she continued, "Wells acts very strange around me. Have you noticed that? He won't let me help with any of Barry's villains unless he _really_ needs an assist, like if Barry's life depends on it. Wells won't take my suggestions on anything. I think that something's wrong, don't you?"

"Amara, Wells is fine. He's rough around the edges, but he lost his fiancée. You know how Caitlin acts since she lost Ronnie." Cisco didn't seem too affected by her concerns. That angered her.

"Cisco, you should be able to see what is right in front of your face. Wells isn't acting normal. Even after losing a fiancée, it doesn't make sense that he would go from being one of the kindest scientists around to being a jerk who builds a faulty particle accelerator that ruins peoples' lives!" She smacked her hands against the table. The champagne glasses rattled, and some couples directed their angry glares at her. Cisco leaned back in his chair and sighed.

They sat for a few moments in complete silence. She knew that this date wasn't going anywhere good, so she stood up, grabbed her coat, and told Cisco "goodbye."

When she stepped outside of the revolving door, she saw Barry on the ground in the street. He was in his Flash suit. People were standing and staring at him, not offering any help whatsoever. Was this what their society had become while she was in her coma, or did becoming a hero make her realize the nature of the people she was saving?

Throwing her coat onto the ground, she moved to his side.

"Barr— uh," she shook her head, "Flash! Wake up!"

She touched the side of his face. His skin, wet with perspiration, burned with heat. He stirred a little and groaned. More people were beginning to gather with her addition to the excitement. Seeing that someone was actually doing something gave them more to talk about on social media. She could already see the headline in her mind: "Civilian turned hero," however, that did not make her proud. It only angered her more that these people would stand and stare as someone who had saved their lives countless times lay on the ground, helpless. She continued to stay by Barry's side, unsure of what she should do. She didn't have her suit anywhere near, and people were watching her, so she couldn't pick him up and run him to STAR Labs.

After about two minutes of wondering what she should do, Cisco came out of the restaurant. When he saw Barry, Cisco ran to him and asked Amara, "What happened out here?"

"I don't know. I found the Flash like this when I came out here," she told him. They both knew that a metahuman, one of the people affected by the particle accelerator, must have done this. Cisco didn't need to say anything. Amara helped Cisco pick up Barry and set him down in Cisco's car. People in the crowd were wondering what they were doing with the Flash. Helping Barry was more important than what their opinions of Amara were, so she continued her strain of carrying him to the car.

They set Barry down on a bed in the med bay when they arrived at STAR Labs. Caitlin and Wells must have gone home because Cisco and Amara didn't see them anywhere.

When Cisco was finished hooking Barry up with the pulse oximeter, they could see that his heart rate was elevated, more elevated than usual since he was a speedster. Amara took his temperature. It read "110 degrees Fahrenheit." Speedsters can withstand fevers better than most people because of their amazing immune systems. At least that's what he heard from Caitlin once. Cisco wasn't a medical doctor. He needed to get Caitlin to STAR Labs. Amara stayed by Barry's side.

"Amara."

She looked at Barry. He was weak, but still responsive.

"I'm here, Barry. What happened?" She grabbed his hand. He felt warmer than when she had checked his temperature only a minute ago.

"Meta. Had . . . disgusting hands. She . . . touched me. Started feeling . . . sick," Barry answered between his labored breaths. She hated seeing him that way. He was her hero and the strongest man she knew.

"We'll help you, Barry. Please just hold on." He began closing his eyes. "Barry!" Thankfully it looked like he was just trying to rest.

Amara tried to relax on the chair at his bedside. Closing her eyes, she focused on Barry, not the aches that served as a caveat of what was to come. Cisco was researching the symptoms of Barry's illness on his computer. Amara looked at Barry again. She jumped from her chair when she realized that his veins were turning black.

What is going on?

She felt his forehead. It was much warmer than before for such a short time. Suddenly, Barry began shouting. "Stop it! Stop it!" He didn't seem to be talking to anyone in the room. He repeated the phrase for a full three minutes before passing out again. If they didn't find an antidote soon, the illness's severity would continue to intensify, eventually resulting in his death.

After standing up for only a short amount of time, Amara's vision began to darken. She quickly sat back down so she wouldn't pass out. She noticed that beads of sweat had started to drip down her brow. She felt as if she had been thrusted into an oven. Even when she sat down she felt the vertigo. Her head began to droop. She felt as though she was going to fall out of her seat. The room spun around her, as if she was in some crazy hall of mirrors. The ceiling bent up while the floor followed close behind. Everything began to spin, with the desks and beds looking like blobs. The room became slightly psychedelic. Everything that had happened within the last few minutes with Barry was like a distant dream. She was falling down a tunnel. The chair slipped out from under her. She hit the cold floor gratefully, its coolness a remedy for her sweltering skin. Cisco's shout was deafened by something. It felt like clouds were covering her eardrums. For all she knew, she could have shouted, screamed even, when she fell out of her seat and not have heard it. When her head hit the floor, she felt a distant, burning pain that distracted her for only a second. At that point, her vision was completely black. At least she didn't have to see the spinning room and the ridiculous colors anymore. It was like she had been taken into the sixties. She tried to say, no, yell, to him, "Cisco!" She couldn't hear herself, and it was driving her mad. The lightning. It felt like the lightning. Alone. No help. Forever. Burning inside of her own skin. The sensory injections. Unbearable pain. The bridge. How it could have ended. _Why couldn't it end now? Oh, please, make it stop!_

How long was it before Cisco was at her side? It was a lifetime of pain in her eyes as she screamed over and over without being able to hear herself. It wasn't the illness that made her scream. It was the insanity that inched its way into her mind when she was most vulnerable. The insanity Griffin implanted in her mind. It was finally being set free by the terrified, cold-sweat anger that flowed through her. She sounded like a maniac that night as she screamed her heart out, not for Cisco's ears but for her own. What kind of illness was this? Was it one of the body . . . or of the mind?


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

"Warning label reads 'Contagious.'"

"Amara!"

He heard her scream, "Cisco," then she dropped out of her seat. Cisco ran to her. Her eyes were half-open. She was screaming over and over. He attempted to calm her down. When he touched her, she immediately passed out. There was sweat on her forehead even though it was only 65 degrees Fahrenheit in the room. Sometimes Cisco considered bringing a thick jacket to work. He shook his head. _No time to think about jackets now, idiot,_ he reprimanded himself. He checked her temperature with his hand. It was almost as bad as Barry's. "Whichever meta Barry said did this, I am definitely calling her Pandemica," Cisco told himself.

This is not the time to think about that either, Cisco . . . even if it's pretty cool. Now is not the time to be talking to myself. Arg! I'm still doing it. I'll just shut up my brain now.

He grabbed Amara to lift her onto another bed. When he touched her, he saw another vision, like what had happened at their date. The Man in Yellow, an evil speedster who had killed Barry's mother, was choking Amara like when he saw the vision the first time, but this time, he could hear more of their conversation.

The Man in Yellow had said, "I've been striving to torment the Flash in any way possible. Now, I have found something better than ending his life: I can end yours. He will be torn apart by your loss. Too bad you won't be able to say goodbye to him." He began to vibrate his hand and bring it closer to her chest. Cisco assumed that he would continue by phasing his hand through her chest, killing her.

The vision ended once again. He returned to the present and hooked Amara up to a heart monitor. Barry and Amara had more elevated heart rates than usual. Their conditions were getting worse by the minute. Their temperatures were critical. Cisco had called Caitlin earlier for her medical expertise. She was on her way. The conversation had gone like this:

"Hey, Caitlin," Cisco told her nervously when she picked up. It sounded like some documentary was playing in the background. That didn't surprise him.

"Cisco! Why are you calling me at 11:24 at night?" she asked him with frustration in her voice. She paused the documentary.

"I need you to get to STAR Labs ASAP! Barry and Amara are—"

"I'll get over there," Caitlin told him.

"I didn't even—"

He could tell that Caitlin was smiling, even without seeing her face-to-face. "Cisco, you and I both know that Barry gets himself into a lot of trouble. As soon as you said, 'get to STAR Labs,' I knew that it had something to do with him. I'll get over there as soon as I can."

She hung up, and Cisco set the phone down.

Back in real time, Cisco stepped over to Barry and Amara. They were holding hands with the strength they had left.

_That is so cute! I wonder how that happened if they're unconscious._

A realization pierced Cisco's heart, even though he always knew it to be true: Amara would be with Barry, not him.

"As handsome as I am," Cisco thought with a smirk, "I'm sure to find another girl."

After waiting by the beds for another ten minutes, Caitlin finally arrived. She quickly walked over to the two speedsters and pulled out some tools. While she was testing their conditions, she asked, "How did they get like this?"

Cisco shrugged and told her, "I think it was a meta. Amara and I found Barry like this. I helped her get him in the car. I felt his forehead to see if he was warm. I also checked Amara. The illness seems to be characterized by fever, black veins, delirium, and possibly some other symptoms." Cisco looked down at his shaking hands and felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "Wait . . . I touched both of them . . ." The illness was spread by contact. He began to walk to a chair to sit down. After what happened to Amara and Barry, he knew the vertigo set in quickly, and he didn't want to lie down on the floor. It hadn't been cleaned since before the particle accelerator explosion. He looked at Caitlin, held up his index finger, and told her, "Don't touch. Warning label reads: "Contagious," before he passed out and fell back in the chair.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Here He Comes

Caitlin slapped on latex gloves, and put in Cisco's IV, causing him to stir. Cisco didn't like any sharp objects in him.

Barry was the worst of all. His temperature was 117 degrees Fahrenheit. With his super healing, he was fighting off the illness, but not fast enough. His white blood cells were just making his death come slower. Of course, Caitlin didn't want Barry to die, so she needed to find a way to help him . . . and soon.

This was a disease that she had never seen before. She needed help to construct an antibiotic. Caitlin quickly dialed his number. It took only a single ring before he answered the phone.

"What is it?"

"Dr. Wells, this is Caitlin. I need your help at STAR Labs. Please get over here as fast as you can. Barry's dying."

It surprised Caitlin how quickly Dr. Wells arrived at STAR Labs. He didn't even drive a car due to his handicap, but he still got to the lab in three minutes. Caitlin lived closer to the lab than him, 15 minutes away for her actually, but somehow, he always got to the lab first when it came to arriving at work in the morning. Maybe he was in the area. At the time, she was just glad that he had come quickly.

When he drove into the room, he demanded, "What happened?"

"I think some metahuman did this. The illness is spread by contact. The three of them have been experiencing high fevers and body aches. Barry's and Amara's super healing is slowing down the contagion, but not stopping it."

He slapped on some gloves and began to drive his wheelchair to the three beds. He inspected their heart rates and checked their temperatures for the next few moments.

Dr. Wells turned to face her. "I want you to look through storage for anything that we might be able to use to construct an antidote. I'll stay here."

She was hesitant to leave their sides, but she knew that Dr. Wells knew best, so she left Barry, Amara, and Cisco to his care.

She set her gloved hand on Cisco's. "Please get better."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Back from the Future

Thawne stood up and pushed his wheelchair aside. He hated pretending to be Harrison Wells. Wells, otherwise known as Eobard Thawne, was too sophisticated for the 21st century. The 22nd was more his speed, literally. He time-traveled to the 2000s using his super speed from the 22nd century to kill Barry Allen, the Flash. Much to Thawne's dismay, he was trapped in this time, depleted of his speed. He had to make sure the Flash stayed alive long enough for him to die by the hands of Reverse-Flash.

Wells had come to STAR Labs so quickly because he couldn't jeopardize his nemesis not dying by his own hands.

Wells looked at Amara next. She was a big question mark in his plan. As far as Wells was concerned, she could ruin his plans, so she must be exterminated. He turned and walked over to the research area. In Wells's time there was a universal antibiotic that worked within a half hour. Thankfully, the illness was bacterial, so the antibiotic would help. Using his speed, Wells finished the antibiotic in short time. He filled a syringe with the liquid and squeezed the air out of it. While still peering through the liquid, he walked toward Barry. He was close to dying.

Wells leaned toward him and whispered, "I can't have you dying just yet, Allen."

He disinfected an area on Barry's arm and injected the antibiotic into him. Then, he grabbed another syringe and repeated the process. Wells strode to Amara's bedside with a confident smirk. She was wearing her blue dress from the date with Cisco. It made her look elegant, peaceful . . . almost.

Wells leaned in and whispered in her ear, "You won't be getting a dose of this." It was hard enough dealing with one speedster. Wells couldn't permit another to join Team Flash.

She stirred a little and appeared to be pained with the aches from the illness. He passed her and stood beside Cisco. "Pandemica. Does she summon pandas or something?" he asked with a voice that suggested he was delirious. Wells looked down at Cisco's face. He was beginning to experience the aches and pains. Wells never thought that he would get so accustomed to having Cisco around. He would go so far as to say Cisco was like a son to him. Wells disinfected his arm and injected the antibiotic. He then sat down in his motorized wheelchair. He smiled and waited for Amara's slow and painful death.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

"Amara is dying."

Caitlin quickly headed to the Cortex with different chemicals in her arms. She set down the bottles as quickly as she could before she dropped them.

"Dr. Wells! I found some materials that we can use to formulate an antibiotic."

He was parked by Amara's bed. He gave Caitlin a somber look and told her, "They were already given an antibiotic." She noticed that Barry and Cisco looked much better than before. Then, she glanced at Amara. Her heart telemetry showed that her heart rate was even more elevated than before.

Caitlin lifted her eyebrows. "What did you give her? You didn't even have anything in here to make it, right? That's why you sent me to the storage room."

"I needed to hurry, or they would die. I made due with the materials I had."

"Okay . . . did you give her the antibiotic?" she asked him as she reached for a thermometer to check her temperature.

He quickly answered, "Yes. Somehow the antibiotic isn't working on her. There must be resistant bacteria in her system." He "fixed" his small screen on his wheelchair even though it was perfectly straight. He then stared at Amara.

She didn't know what to do; Dr. Wells had told her that he gave Amara the antibiotic. Caitlin knew he didn't like her, but she couldn't imagine him lying to her. She had worked with and trusted him. Also, if he was telling the truth, she couldn't just keep giving her doses of the antibiotic until it worked. She decided to see the best in him and try to find another way to help her.

Caitlin put the thermometer under Amara's tongue and waited for about five seconds before the temperature showed up on the digital reader. "118 degrees Fahrenheit," it read. She could suffer brain damage if they didn't find some way to help her soon.

Caitlin tore her gaze away and asked Dr. Wells, "Do you have any ideas on how we can help her?" She looked deep into his eyes and demanded, "If you know anything on how we can save her, I need you to tell me. Please, help her." She pleaded and showed her distress with eyes that were already watering.

Before Dr. Wells could answer her, Barry began to wake up. That meant Cisco should wake up soon. Barry stirred and opened his eyes. He looked around and asked, "What happened? What happened to Amara? Cisco looks fine. What made them get sick like me?"

Caitlin tried to cover the grave expression that shot across her face, but there was no hiding the truth of Amara's condition from Barry. "The illness that you had was spread by contact, so when Cisco and Amara touched you to get you in the car, they were infected. Dr. Wells said that he gave all three of you the antibiotic. Unfortunately, it didn't work on Amara." She avoided the confused and pained gaze that Barry gave her.

"Caitlin, what are you saying?"

She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the delivery of the horrible message she was about to give to her colleague. "Amara is dying."

He immediately pushed himself up from his bed, took out the IV and the pulse oximeter, and made his way to their research area. He worked as fast as he could to construct an antibiotic before Amara's temperature got too high. Wells drove away to who knows where. Cisco was slowly waking up as Barry worked on the antibiotic.

"What happened?" he questioned when he sat up.

No one answered him. All he had to do was look to his side. His facial expression showed he at least had a vague idea of what was going on.

Barry slammed his hands on the table. "Why isn't this working, Caitlin? I've tried everything I can think of, but I just don't know how to save her. I have super powers, I'm a forensic scientist, and we are at STAR Labs, one of the best labs in Central City, and I still can't find a way to save her." He put his hands over his head and turned around to try to calm himself down. Caitlin gathered a new wave of determination and grabbed the remaining amount of antibiotics that Dr. Wells had supposedly given to Amara. She disinfected her skin, pushed the air out of the syringe, and put in the antibiotic for what could have been the second time. They had no better options. They waited, watching the heart monitor for any sign of improvement.

They waited for what seemed like eternity before she woke up. Cisco had been pacing for a while. After a half hour, Amara opened her eyes. Her temperature had gone back down to ninety-eight point six.

"Hey, guys," she remarked groggily.

Their faces lit up with relief. "Are you feeling okay?" Caitlin asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah. Kinda."

Now that Amara was okay, Caitlin remembered her naming of the villain. "Cisco," she stated, as she turned to him and smiled, "I named the villain of the week."

Cisco looked surprised and angry simultaneously. "What's the name?" he inquired skeptically.

"Pox," she answered proudly and stood up straighter.

Cisco gave her a nod that signaled his approval and smiled. "Good job . . . this time." He eyed her for a moment. "Actually, it's Pandemica," he whispered. She began to protest, but he watched Amara get back on her feet which ended that conversation. She was beginning to test her speed by vibrating her hand.

"Let's go stop Pandemica," Amara declared in her usual determined voice.

Caitlin started to warn her, "I don't think you're—"

"—ready?" she finished for Caitlin with a smirk. "You can't let me out of the action. If Barry gets to go, then I get to go." Amara put on her costume and prepared to take down the villain.

Barry began to tell her "no," but at that moment, Dr. Wells came into the Cortex and asked, "How did you save her?" He was very surprised by Amara's vibrant attitude. Just about a half an hour ago, she had been close to death. Dr. Wells gripped the arms of his wheelchair.

What is his damage? Caitlin thought.

Dr. Wells quickly released his hands and spoke calmly. "Have you discovered how to stop your villain?"

Cisco began to speak excitedly. "If we can make another dose of the antibiotic, then we can have Barry inject that into Pandemica. That should kill the bacteria, which should also stop her powers for a while."

They all nodded in agreement of Cisco's plan. Turning to Dr. Wells, Caitlin asked, "Can you make more of the antibiotic?"

"Yes, but I'll need some privacy," he told them.

"Why do you need privacy to make an antibiotic?" Caitlin asked.

"The solution is very sensitive to carbon dioxide. Having more than one person in the room obviously causes there to be more carbon dioxide, which ruins the effectiveness of the antibiotic."

"All right. Let's go," Barry told them.

Amara, Cisco, Barry, and Caitlin reluctantly headed into the hallway. They stood in silence and waited for Dr. Wells to finish.

Caitlin leaned around the doorframe to check on his progress. She spoke as she watched through the doorway. "Dr. Wells is done. Barry and Amara, you can go now." She turned around to face Cisco and the two speedsters. "They left already," she said to herself. "Of course, they did. I bet they forgot the––"

A moment later, disembodied voice came from yellow lightning that shot through the Cortex. "Sorry! I need that!" The full syringe was taken from Wells's hand and left him with an empty, extended arm. Wells suppressed a shout and resorted to a scowl.

Caitlin acted first when she sat down by the computers and hooked up the com link. Cisco sat down next and began by asking the speedsters, "What's up?"

Barry answered by telling him in a rushed voice, "We found Pandemica during our quick search. We're trying to inject the antibiotic into Pandemica, but we can't get close enough to her to inject it without being touched."

Caitlin began to speak again on her com link. "You and Amara need to run fast enough to get rid of the oxygen around her. She should go unconscious. That's when you'll have your chance to give her the antibiotic."

Amara answered, "Thanks, Caitlin," on the coms. After that, they didn't hear anything for three minutes. The only constant update was the heart rate monitors from the suits displayed on the screen. The rates were elevated, but at least they were not as high as earlier.

Caitlin bit her lower lip in worry. "Barry, are you there?"

"Yeah," he answered, "I think we should be able to give her the antibiotic soon. She's starting to collapse."

After a few moments, Barry came on the coms again. "We're bringing her back now."

The fact that Pandemica was gone was a great relief. Cisco thought jokingly, "That girl's bad attitude was contagious."


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Finish Line

1 week later

"Can you catch up to me, you slow poke?"

"The race is on!" Barry announced as he sped up his pace. Amara pumped her legs even harder than before. She wasn't about to let the Flash beat her at a race. He might have been the fastest _man_ alive, but it was hands down that she was the fastest _woman_ alive.

She sped around a building as Barry followed close behind. With a sudden burst of speed, she ran up along the side of a skyscraper and back down onto the other side. She navigated through the sea of cars from rush hour that laid between her and the finish line. Barry had taught her some of his tricks not too long ago. Maybe he should have waited until _after_ they had finished the race to be the sensei.

"Wait, Amara! What are you doing?" Barry asked as she vibrated through a bus and came out the other side. He was forced to run around it.

"How did you do that?" he asked curiously.

She would have shrugged if they weren't racing, "I thought that if I can go really fast, then I could just pass through the empty space in the atoms of the solid object. There should be enough space in there for me too, right?" She smiled, even though he was behind her and couldn't see. Barry was too stunned to speak; he was a scientist, but he hadn't figured out on his own that he could do that with his powers.

Turning around a corner of a building, Amara quickly stopped, grabbed Barry, and pulled him around the corner, almost slamming him into the wall with the sudden stop.

"What was that for?" They had both been determined to win that race, but that wasn't going to happen. His eyebrows narrowed in annoyance, but he quickly understood when Amara pointed toward the alley way where Leonard Snart and Mick Rory, a.k.a. Captain Cold and Heatwave, were lugging around two bags full of money. An escape car waited at the end of the alley for these notorious criminals.

"Oh. I see now." He whispered, "What's the plan?"

"You distract them. I can come around the back and knock them unconscious," she responded quickly. Her rapid answer was surprising. She had learned a lot from Barry in the brief time she had been on Team Flash.

"Good plan," he commented, giving her a thumbs-up. Amara attempted to hide her nervous look as Flash began the plan by slowly walking into the alley and casually leaning against the wall of a building.

Sneering, Snart looked up from his bags of money. "Are you finally slowing down to enjoy life?"

"Nah. Just talking to some criminals before they get lonely in prison. Leonard Snart, when you're back behind bars, you better not pull another prison break." Barry shook his index finger. Amara sniggered a little. Rory wasn't happy with Flash's humor. He had a look on his face that seemed he wanted to burn Flash into small bits of ash.

"I think I can manage a good prison break," Snart commented thoughtfully. Then he became serious. "It's two against one. What are you going to do?" He set his hand on his cold gun and prepared for an attack.

Amara used this as her cue, and she pushed herself off the wall. Her fist landed on Rory's jaw. He fell into Snart, which seemed to knock both out. They collapsed on the ground. Snart's hand fell off the handle of his gun which was in his belt. Rory's weapon skidded away from him, and Flash stopped it with his foot.

"Booyah!" Amara declared as they fist-bumped.

"I believe that is someone else's catchphrase," he remarked.

Flash told Cisco that they had foiled Captain Cold and Heatwave's heist once again.

"You take my pride away every time you catch me, Flash. Now, I'll take something away from you," Snart whispered as he pulled the trigger.

Amara's back was turned to the villains. She didn't notice what was happening until the beam had begun barreling toward her. Spotting the beam, Flash picked Amara up and swung her to the side before it hit her. With Amara out of the way, the beam struck Flash in the chest. He stumbled backwards before he fell. Amara sprinted to Snart and threw him against the wall, rendering him unconscious. Ice spread across his chest. The cold seeped into his skin and muscles, making it nearly impossible for him to breathe.

"Ugh," he muttered painfully.

"What am I supposed to do? I-I'm still not used to working in the field. My plan did this. It's all my fault." Amara let her head fall into her hands.

He slowly lifted his head to look at her. "Use the friction from your speed as a heat source." Hesitantly, she lifted her hands over his chest and began to vibrate them at super speed. She slowed down as droplets of water replaced the ice. He breathed heavily but began to sit up.

"Are you okay, Flash?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered. "I've been through worse. Thanks," he showed a brilliant grin that made her lips involuntarily curl into another smile. That was when she realized that he was incredible, and not just in a handsome sense. He had risked his own life to protect her.

They ran back to STAR Labs together where Caitlin checked his skin for frostbite.

"It's a good thing you stopped the ice when you did. It was even worse than last time," Caitlin mentioned as she walked away. Setting his hand on Amara's shoulder, Barry told her "thank you" once again. Amara beamed with happiness. There was a strange feeling inside of her that felt something like butterflies. She hadn't felt this way in a very long time and desperately wanted to bottle them up. After being locked away and fulfilling an evil man's desires, she wasn't ready to think about those feelings. Maybe they would go away like everything she had ever known. Also, Barry already had feelings for Iris, the girl he grew up having a crush on. Amara wondered what chance she would ever have with him, if any at all.

"Yeah," she told him. "No problem." Pushing past him, she headed home with nothing on her mind but to get away from these feelings.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Hey . . .

2 weeks later

"Hey, do you want to go to Jitters later?"

"Barry," Amara told him pushing past, "I can run there and get it in a matter of seconds."

He ran in front of her and said worriedly, "You used to get coffee with me whenever we were done taking down a villain. What's different now?"

She had been desperately hiding her feelings from him for two weeks. She wasn't about to let them come out now. She couldn't show the team, or anyone for that matter, that she could be manipulated by feelings, or she could be pulled in by another person like Griffin and have her life fall apart for the second time.

"I'm not in the mood for coffee," she told him flatly, pushing him aside once more.

"You've said that for the past two weeks," he reminded her.

"I told you I wasn't in the mood. Now leave me alone!" She was about to run out of the Cortex when Cisco called, "We've got another meta."

"Ugh." She reluctantly turned around. Barry made way for her when she shot an angry glare at him in the doorway. "What is it?" she asked Cisco moodily.

"Okay . . ." Cisco turned back to his computer screen and made a face. "Umm . . . let's see. We've got the Trickster at Central City Bank. You guys know what to do." Cisco leaned towards Barry and whispered, "What's up with her?"

"Maybe it's that time," Barry replied.

"But she's been like that for the past two weeks," Cisco protested. Amara grunted in annoyance.

"Bye, Cisco," Barry told him speedily.

They arrived at the bank to find eleven hostages. The speedsters were sure to stay behind a building until they could come up with a plan. Trickster was laughing manically inside, as could be seen through the glass revolving door. The rest of the building was limestone, and nothing else could be seen inside.

"Amara, what are you thinking?" Barry whispered as he watched through the window.

"Just follow my lead," she replied.

"Hey, we should discuss the plan––"

She raced inside before he could finish. She stole the bag of money from the thief. Thankfully he didn't have anything that she had to disarm, or so she thought. Trickster grabbed a small flower on his shirt and squeezed it. He quickly strapped a mask over his face that looked like a clown face with giant red lips and green hair. Amara began to choke along with everyone else in the room. There was no time for her to run, for she was already struggling to find the strength to stand. She dropped the bags of money and looked to the window where Flash was standing. He had been waiting to see how her plan went and to step in if it was necessary. She was surprised that he didn't have the "I told you so" look. He was worried for everyone in there, including her, despite what she had said to him earlier. She fell to her knees, struggling to breathe as she grabbed at her throat. "Sorry," she mouthed. Trickster laughed hysterically as he snatched the money bags. Flash began to run inside the revolving glass door, pushing it as fast as he could. It caused the gas to diffuse. Amara gasped in the fresh oxygen and lay on her back. Even when she was able to stand, she couldn't gather the strength to say anything to Barry.

"Listen, I acted out earlier, and if we're going to work together and trust each other, we need to be upfront and confess what we're feeling," Amara told Barry as she stopped in the doorway. His hands sat in his pockets as he eyed the desk next to him. Amara spoke without facing him, as if she couldn't bear his gaze.

"Go ahead."

Amara's gaze fell to the floor. "I've . . . had these feelings that I've been trying to push down, but it's interfering with our Team Flash duties. Ever since Griffin left my life, I've been trying so hard to seem invulnerable to everyone. I can't even bear the thought of someone repeating what Griffin did to me. Recently, I've been getting these new feelings, but I've been keeping them hidden to not get my heart broken again." She lifted her gaze from the floor to the wall, and part of her wanted to turn around to see his expression.

"What feelings would those be?" he asked curiously.

She hesitated. She had no desire to sound like some star-crossed lover. After all, it might just be a fling. If she sounded pathetic, well, she had no idea what he would say or do. "I have nothing in my life for a year that I cared about. But now I finally have something, no, someone, who puts a smile on my face. I can't risk losing this person, because then I would have nothing left."

"And . . . may I ask who this person is?" Barry had stepped up behind her. Amara's heart thumped with such ferocity that she thought Barry could hear it.

"You," she uttered.

They stood in silence for many minutes before either of them spoke. "Amara," Barry told her at last, "You won't lose me."

With that, she turned around and met his eyes, the most caring eyes she had ever seen.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Out with a Bang

4 weeks later

Barry handed Amara a small box. That morning he had taken her to Joe's house to get them acquainted. In four weeks many of Barry's and Amara's interactions had changed. However, it wasn't the time that had changed them. Amara's confession had helped Barry realize that he had feelings for her too. It was pointless for him to struggle for Iris's attention with her dating Eddie. The night after Amara's confession, Barry took her out for dinner to get to know each other better. Amara told Barry as much as she remembered about his getting struck by lightning and the time until she was adopted into the Flash family. Barry recounted his first realization of his powers and what kept him going: his mother's murder.

Barry's mother, Nora Allen, had been murdered by "the Man in Yellow" when Barry was only eleven years old. Young Barry heard the noise and came downstairs. His mother was surrounded by red and yellow lightning. In a moment, Barry was standing outside with only trails of yellow lightning left as a path back to his house. By the time he returned, the cops were investigating the scene. His father was taken away to Iron Heights with his mother's body covered by a sheet. Detective Joe West took Barry in, even though the boy resented it. Very often he would try to pay visits to his father in prison. Eventually, Joe became a father to Barry. No one had believed Barry when he reported his mother was murdered by "the man in the lightning," even Joe, until speedsters were created by the particle accelerator explosion.

Amara sat on the couch in the West home's living room. A giftbox sat in front of her. It marked her one-month anniversary of their relationship. The giftbox was about five by seven inches. It was very light and tied with a red and yellow bow.

"What's this for?" she asked mysteriously.

Barry pushed it toward her. "Just open it."

She eyed him for a moment, then took off the lid. Inside were five postcards, each from one landmark: the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Roman Coliseum, the Great Wall of China, and the Grand Canyon.

"When did you have time to get these?"

"You know we aren't fighting villains _all_ the time."

Amara put her hands over her heart and smiled. "I love them. I can put them in my room at STAR Labs since I won't be able to visit all these places." She began to close the giftbox lid. Barry sat watching her, and Amara wondered what he was waiting for. After him sitting there for a while without doing anything but stare at her, she told him, "Thanks for the postcards." She waited for a moment longer, but he said nothing more. "What do you want?" she asked as she caved in.

"I got you these postcards because it's a preview."

It only took her a moment to understand what he meant. "Oh my gosh! You mean we're going to Paris, and China, and Rome? Thank you!" She dove at him and hugged him so tight it was worse than Grodd's grip. Although, Barry hugged her back.

Barry told her after a few minutes, "Now, I need to introduce you to Joe." Even though Amara worked with Joe over a year ago, much had changed, and Barry wanted his stepfather to meet the new Amara.

Joe was in the kitchen brewing coffee. The dark circles under his eyes and slow movements showed he was tired after the long night of work at the CCPD. There had been a lot of robberies last night, and Barry and Amara were tired too after a long night as superheroes.

"I have someone I want you to meet," Barry told him from the doorway. Amara stood in the doorway next to Barry. Joe grabbed a mug from the cabinet and began to sluggishly walk to the coffee maker, hardly seeming to hear him. At least speedsters seemed to stay awake longer due to the speed force in their bodies.

"Hello, Detective West. I haven't seen you in a while." Amara waved at him.

"Just call me Joe," he told her, half-asleep. His eyes suddenly widened. He dropped the mug, which would have shattered on the floor had Barry not grabbed it with his super speed. He hated seeing good mugs break. Joe looked like he was going to have a heart attack at any minute.

"Is that . . . are you . . ." Joe pointed at her and didn't even try to hide his bewildered expression. "Are you Detective Jones, and Barry, why did you just use your . . ." He gestured to her and asked Barry with his eyes, "_Why did you just use your speed in front of her?_"

"It's okay, Joe. She knows." His stepdad nodded, still aghast with what was happening.

"I'm awake enough now that I won't need my coffee," he mumbled to himself. He then turned to her and asked, "So, you're Detective Jones, right, or do you have an amazing resemblance?"

"My name is Amara Jones, and you have one charming son here."

Barry shook his head, waving off her comment. "She's being too kind, Joe."

Joe was calmed a little, but he was still amazed. "How is she alive?"

Amara hesitated, not wanting to revisit her past, but she knew repressing her memories would do nothing but make them worse in the future. "A group of people led by a man by the name of Griffin Campbell took me from Central City Hospital on the night of December 11th of 2013. He killed a nurse to get me for my powers. I was practically his slave for the past year. Barry freed me. Now, I work with him at STAR Labs." She had tried to speed through the recounting as much as possible.

"Does that mean that you're a meta-human?" Joe asked.

"I'm a speedster like Barry. I'm Acceler8."

Joe was taken aback. He literally stepped backward and asked, "You're the new hero, Acceler8? Wow."

"It's wonderful being a superhero," she told him.

Joe excitedly remarked, "You should join our team again back at the police station!"

Amara stopped for a moment. She stared straight ahead as the new thought hit her. She did have a chance at a normal life. Griffin Campbell hadn't taken everything away from her.

"Thanks for letting me come, but I've gotta go." Amara told him quickly before she bolted.

"She seems nice," Joe remarked quietly.

Joe was surprised by her very sudden departure. Barry set the mug on the counter and told Joe, "Thanks for your time," before he ran after her.

3 weeks later

Barry tucked Amara's dark hair behind her ear. They had finished their tour of the world and were standing outside STAR Labs. A light breeze gently blew her stray strands of hair. Amara set her hand on his shoulder. He held her waist. They got closer together until there was no space between them as they enjoyed the company of one another.

They embraced in a special moment between the two of them. The sun behind them shrank as their lips closed the distance. Each had a magical moment as they held each other during the placid sunset occurring behind. They let their love pour into each other's hearts. Neither knew how long they embraced, but it felt like an eternity and a second simultaneously. They couldn't begin to think of ending it.

Amara opened her eyes when she seemed to hear a noise. Barry couldn't hear it himself, so he wasn't sure why she had stopped. Ending the kiss for the moment, she glanced over his shoulder. "Kole?" Amara whispered. Barry tried to look where her attention was directed, but he didn't see anyone. He brought her gaze back and slid her worries away by gently setting his hand under her chin and bringing her gaze back to him.

"Let's not worry about villains right now," he told her with a smile. She nervously looked back at the spot, then turned her gaze back to him.

Barry's eyes snapped open with a sudden small gush of wind. He spotted a small gleaming object and heard a _pop_ sound which made him glance around in curiosity for the source. It whizzed past his side and sped ahead. He hadn't noticed the object until it was too late, even with his speed. When he looked back, Amara slowly pulled away from him.

Why did she let go? Why couldn't that have lasted? he thought.

An expression of pain shot across her face as her mouth opened in shock. She slowly moved her hand from his arm to her left shoulder. When she pulled her hand away from her shirt, Barry saw that red liquid showed on her skin. The blood rapidly spread across her shirt, seemingly too quick for a single bullet wound. Her face became ashen as her knees buckled beneath her. He caught her as she fell and sat on his feet with her draped over his legs.

"It hurts," she stated as she leaned her head back in pain against the asphalt. She groggily told Barry, "Kole did this. You need to run . . ." Her eyes began to roll back and close, and he pulled her limp body even closer to his chest.

"Amara! Stay with me," he desperately whispered in her ear. "Please."

He quickly scanned the area for Kole, but he didn't know what he looked like. Amara had never described Kole to Barry. No one else was in the parking lot.

How did I not see the bullet? he thought. I can always see the bullets when they come. Why not now?

He gently lifted Amara. She was completely limp, and her eyes were closed. She was barely breathing. The asphalt beneath her bullet wound was already marked by a pool of blood.

After he had made sure that he was supporting her neck, Barry picked her up to carry her inside STAR Labs. He was directly in front of the door when Caitlin suddenly opened it. She was leaving the lab for home and almost dropped her bags in surprise.

"Barry!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here––" She saw Amara's limp body and his hands stained with blood. "Back inside," she gestured.

When inside the med bay, Caitlin got out her stethoscope from a nearby cabinet and checked Amara's heartbeat. She listened for a couple of seconds. "That's too slow for a speedster. Barry, tell me what happened."

"She and I were in the parking lot saying goodbye. She wanted to stop off here to ask your opinion about something. We––uh, stood in the parking lot for a bit. She mentioned something about Kole, then a minute later she was shot, and I hadn't even seen the bullet until it was too late."

Barry glanced down at Amara. She was pale and sweating and still losing blood.

Caitlin pulled down the light and inspected the bullet wound, then explained Amara's condition. "The bullet appears to have punctured the brachial artery. The wound goes all the way through, and I don't see the bullet. We need to cauterize the artery, or she will bleed out. I need something to warm her up, blankets if we have any, suturing materials, and some IV fluids."

Caitlin sanitized the wound to prepare for the procedure. Barry grabbed the items Caitlin requested and set them down on the table beside her. "Amara, if you can hear me, this is going to hurt, but we're here to help you. Do not, I repeat, do not use your powers in pain while I am doing this, okay?" Amara didn't respond. Caitlin exhaled to calm her nerves. Using her tools, she began to work on the wound. At some points, Barry was certain that Amara would cry out in pain due to the sizzling sound of her artery being cauterized. He had to cover his nose with his shirt to not smell the aroma of burning tissue. Next, Caitlin began stitching up Amara's wound. When she was finished, she told Barry to retrieve the bullet from the parking lot for Cisco to study the next day.

Caitlin put a thermometer in Amara's mouth. After waiting a few moments, she told Barry, "We need to warm her up. Can you –"

There was no need for her to finish her request. Barry had enough medical knowledge to know that he needed to keep her warm to cut down the shock. He began creating a friction barrier using his speed which trapped the heat around Amara's body. When her body temperature rose to 98.6 on the thermometer, he slowed down and gradually ended the process of creating the barrier.

Afterwards, nothing eventful happened. Barry stayed at her bedside until morning.

"What happened to Amara?" Cisco asked the next morning. He and Wells were the only ones who got a decent night's sleep on the team.

"Kole," Barry answered sleepily.

"Who?"

"Held Amara captive," Caitlin told him as she sipped her third cup of coffee. She had been monitoring Amara's vitals all night. She hoped there would be no meta-human to defeat that day. Cisco didn't dare ask any more questions about Amara's condition.

"What is this for?" Cisco asked, eying the dish the sterilized bullet sat in. Caitlin had labeled the dish "Cisco" in case she wasn't awake to tell him the next morning. He was unable to see the bullet, so it looked like an empty dish with his name on it.

"There's a bullet inside," Caitlin replied sleepily. "I think there's cloaking technology inside of it. Whatever it is, it's top notch."

"Cool! I can't wait to study this." Cisco carried it off to his room in STAR Labs where he could study the bullet's technology and maybe even reverse engineer it.

Amara still hadn't woken up. Caitlin had spent the last few hours wondering if Amara needed a blood transfusion. With nothing to do, Barry sat down in a chair and tried to get some sleep.

Dr. Wells had gone to his only retreat in STAR Labs. Besides his home, it was the only place where he could get out of his wheelchair.

"Hello, Harrison Wells," Gideon announced as the blue 3D holographical image of her face appeared.

"Show me the future," he ordered the AI. The digital hologram of the newspaper from April 25th, 2024 appeared.

It still read, "Flash Missing Vanishes in Crisis."

Thawne nodded in agreement with himself. He had done the right thing in leaving Amara alive for the present. She was the key to Thawne harming the Flash in any way possible.

Just a little longer, he thought. Then, these years of being stranded here will be worth something.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The Beginning of the End

2 days later

Amara slowly opened her eyes. The light above her was so bright.

_Am I dead?_ she thought.

She could hear Cisco speaking before her sight kicked in. "The bullet that hit Amara didn't make your super speed reflexes kick in because it's made of a compound that connects with the surrounding speed force, making it go at the same speed that you speedsters have inside of you. In other words, this bullet takes your Speed Force potential energy and transfers it in waves to itself into kinetic energy, thereby making it faster and able to hit you without your speed reflexes kicking in. Also, the bullets are equipped with the latest technology that only the government has been able to use. It bends the light around it making the surface of it appear like what is behind it. Don't feel bad that you didn't see it, Barry. This is almost on par with the freeze gun I made since it's perfect against speedsters."

Barry sounded half asleep when he told Cisco, "Thanks." Amara's eyes finally adjusted to the light suspended above her. She noticed that she must have been asleep for a while for it to have taken that long for her eyes to adjust.

"Barry?" she asked weakly. He was the only person she could think about.

He quickly became fully alert, and his eyes lit up with hope. He was seated at her bedside. Dark circles encircled his eyes from his lack of decent sleep.

"I'm here, Amara," he answered as he squeezed her hand. She was hooked up to nasal cannula oxygen tubes. An IV fluid bag near her bedside provided her with an essential method of hydration. She slowly recalled what happened. Kole was behind one of the few cars in the parking lot and was using a disguising device that kept him hidden from any unwanted observers. The meta-humans at Griffin's lab had been trained to recognize the faint shimmer that indicated where their colleagues were with the device activated. Over time, she had learned to recognize the builds of the people who were using the device. That was how she knew where Kole was in the parking lot that night. "Kole shot me," she finally said. "He was waiting to ambush me. Their lab is somewhere in or around the city. I can stop them if we just search every building for the lab. He knows where we are. I don't want you to get hurt."

Barry listened attentively, but he didn't like the way the conversation was heading. "I'm not letting you go after him."

"Don't you think that I got close to other meta-humans at the other lab? Guess what happened to them? They either died or got brainwashed into being like any soldier Griffin ever had. I finally have a family, and now you're trying to tell me that I can't even save them?"

"I won't let you run out there to their lab just to get yourself killed," he exclaimed.

"I can't be sheltered like some baby bird for all of my life. I have to take a leap out of that nest and see if I can fly."

"You were just shot! I almost lost you two days ago. It's suicide if you go running into their lab by yourself. Only one man almost killed you. What will happen if you go against fifty, or even a hundred armed men? Griffin has an army, and you aren't ready to face it!"

"Oh, I get it. It's okay if Barry Allen, the perfect boy with the perfect life, goes in and saves everyone because he's a hero, but if I go in there to try to save the day, I'm going to die. Is that what you're implying, Mr. Allen?" She pronounced his formal name with rage lining her tongue.

"You aren't experienced enough."

"Will I ever be experienced enough for you, Barry, or should I call you Harrison Wells?"

"I am NOT––"

"You sure are acting like the egotistical man he is!"

"He saved my life, Amara! Without him, I would have died at the hospital that night! I would be in a casket right now!"

"No, Barry. You would have been next to me with Griffin controlling our lives. And you know what? It _is_ your fault for what Griffin did to me. You were so busy playing hero in your nice red Halloween costume that you never bothered to help anyone except bettering yourself when you took down the people your idol helped create!"

"Amara, you are going too far."

"You don't even try to help those people. You call them meta-humans, but it just dehumanizes them to the point where you don't care if they end up behind bars."

"That's not true. I do care about those people, and I try to help them. Just calm down, and let's discuss this. How about I go get Wells?"

"We don't need Wells," she snapped.

"Without him––"

"––without Wells I would have a life! I would have a job. I would have freedom. I wouldn't have been tortured and indoctrinated so much that I cried myself to sleep every night with the few tears I had left to lose!" Amara stopped. Caitlin and Cisco glanced at each other. The painful memories that Amara had been trying so hard to rid of were coming in a flash flood, controlling her mind, her thoughts. Griffin's indoctrination was trying to take control. That part of her wanted to attack Barry, and as ironic as it was, that Griffin-controlled part wanted her to go after the man who had wronged her and end him.

She needed to be a hero. If she was ever going to change the course of her life, she needed to make the tough choice, and do it the right way. No killing, but she would still need to stop Griffin.

Barry broke the silence. "Don't worry. We will go after him, but you're just not ready. Wait for a while until you heal up and get some more experience under your sleeves, then we can go together and take him off his iron throne. I'm sorry for what he did to you, but let me help you get back to your old self."

"Don't say 'you're sorry.' You can't change it now. It's broken, Barry, and it can't be put back together." She shook her head; her breathing was strained from the wound and from the anger that accelerated her breaths. She was helpless.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Confusion Arises

"You let her live? How foolish are you fools, baboons, scoundrels? I didn't tell you to kill her. I want the speedsters alive, so we can use our machine! Now go get them while they are weakened!" Griffin exclaimed. His soldiers appeared to be confused about his statements.

"Sir," Kole began, "may I point out that you were infuriated that they let her live, then you were angry that they almost killed her?"

He worriedly scratched his scraggly chin. "You are my most trusted lieutenant. Did I order them to kill her? I can't remember."

"No . . . sir," he replied with a strange look. "Are you alright, sir?" Kole cautiously asked him.

"Yes, now go get that girl and the Flash," Griffin ordered Kole, shaking his head.

"What is happening to my mind?" Griffin thought to himself.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Runaway

4 Days Later

Barry was grateful that Amara was okay. She was already almost completely back to normal four days later, except that she was still livid at him. Caitlin told the team that Amara was expected to be back to her full strength in another day or so. Cisco and Caitlin had begun to help her with rehab.

"Barry! There you are. I thought that you might be out saving the city again." Amara let go of the salmon ladder. Barry was amazed that she was able to do that. She was doing a great job at the ladders even with her injury.

"What's up, Amara?"

"I was thinking it was time for me to go back to the police station. Joe was talking about me getting my job back. I think I've finally found myself in a place where I'm ready to take on this responsibility."

"Well . . ." Barry took a deep breath and looked to Caitlin and Cisco. They both shook their heads "no." Barry continued to tell her the bad news, "I hate to disappoint you, but if people discover that you have been alive this whole time, they might put two and two together. Trust me, not every superhero gets a chance to only have one job. I have to make it to work every day and keep all of this," he gestured to the Cortex, "secret from the people I care about."

"I don't even know why I told you," She shook her head. She quickly changed into her street clothes, then sped out of the room, STAR Labs, and his life in a blur that lasted only a second.

Amara wanted to live her life. She hated that she wasted almost a whole year in a coma and almost another with a man whom she thought she loved.

_Should I go back to my old career? Should I continue being a superhero? Should I leave Central City, my identity, and my life?_

She stopped in front of a familiar building that offered a miniscule sense of happiness. A limestone entrance and a golden sign that read "Central City Police" spoke volumes to her heart. About a year ago she didn't imagine she would see this place again. Taking a deep breath, she began the life-changing steps up the stairs that she thought would shape the rest of her life.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

CCPD

"I can't believe we let her go. If Griffin finds out that she's there, then she and everyone there will be in danger. Why can't Barry go save her?" Cisco asked Wells.

"She's not a little girl. She's a superhero and can take care of herself. Furthermore, if Barry comes rushing in as the Flash to help her, someone might wonder how the Flash knew she was there. Then, they could consider the possibility of her being a superhero like the Flash because she was also hit by lightning. Next, they might wonder, 'Well, Barry Allen was hit by lightning. He survived. He disappears at some of the strangest times. Oh wait, could he be the Flash?' There's a whole sequence of events that could happen just because you want to make amends this soon after an argument. Trust me, Cisco, she needs more time alone."

Barry asked them angrily, "Who said I want to get her back? As far as I'm concerned, she's off the team."

"Barry, you two were a great couple. Why did you two just . . ." he put his hands together and slowly brought them apart, making an exploding noise, "Phew!"

"If she won't listen to me, then this relationship isn't meant to be," Barry told him.

"Wow. That is one nice rhyme. Anyway, back to my point. A relationship is made of two parts for a reason. She needs to listen to you, but you also need to listen to her. Take her stance for a moment and think about what she's been through. From what I've heard, she been traumatized. I know that your mom got murdered when you were young, and that was horrible, don't get me wrong, but––"

"Don't trivialize my mother's death! My dad is still behind bars for a crime he didn't commit. He had to spend over a decade in Iron Heights without being able to see me grow up, so don't you dare talk about Amara's past like it was worse than mine."

"Actually," Cisco stated quietly, "what she went through _was_ much worse. After your mom died, you had the West family to help you through it. Amara had nothing, no one, after she was struck by lightning. Everyone who cared about her thought she was dead. She was left hopeless in a reverse mirror version of STAR Labs. Except for saying you're sorry for what happened to her and that you weren't able to help her in time, you never really understood her. If you want her to come back, which I know you do, despite what you're saying, then you need to go to her and understand what she's been through to be able to communicate with her. Otherwise, you guys are going to keep fighting, and that's going to get annoying."

Barry slowly nodded his head, absorbing this new information.

Cisco spoke worriedly. "Hey, Barry, we've got a ping."

"Where?" Barry asked.

"CCPD."


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

"I'm back!"

"Detective Joe West."

The detective turned around.

"I'm ready to rejoin the force, sir." Amara forced herself to smile; her previous emotions continued to overwhelm her.

He shrugged and smiled. "Well let me tell the force that you've returned."

Joe headed to Singh's office. When Joe came in, Singh was at his desk, looking through his papers with a scowl on his face.

"Hey, I've got someone I want you to meet."

"What is it, Joe?" he asked in a voice that signaled his annoyance. He was looking for something. Grabbing a stack of papers to look at, he slowly walked around to the front of his desk while still looking down. "Who is it that you want me to meet, Detective West?" Joe gestured to Amara. Singh hadn't heard an answer from him, so he looked up from his papers. "Oh! Detective Jones! Have you decided to return?"

"Yes, captain, I have," she answered.

"Well then," he set the stack of papers back on his desk, and Amara and Joe took note of how his annoyance had completely disappeared with Amara's reappearance.

"I suppose we should tell everyone that you're alive."

Joe and Amara followed him to the lobby just in front of the elevators. He called for everyone to come. Amara tapped her foot impatiently and looked around at the station that had hardly changed since she was last there.

After waiting for a few minutes for everyone to gather, Singh began speaking. "All of you know that we have lost officers along the way of our journey to bring this city peace each and every day. Some of you were here the day we got word that Detective Jones died in the hospital. Detective Joe West has informed me that she was abducted from the hospital that day. She did not pass away when she was hit by lightning. Today, she returned to us. I present to you, Detective Jones!"

Many faces were filled with shock. One officer eyed her, began speaking into his radio, and briskly headed out of the room. Amara felt as though she recognized him from somewhere, but not from the police station.

After the man had left, she saw what he had been standing in front of.

It was a picture of her on the wall of fallen officers. Detective Fred Chyre's picture was also there.

Before Amara had any time to react, she noticed a small metal object rocketing towards her. The bullet flew only inches in front of her face, making her relieved that the shooter had a bad aim. The energy bullet embedded itself in the wall behind her. Thankfully the experience of being shot hadn't repeated itself.

"Everybody, get down!" Someone shouted.

The officers quickly got behind whatever they could find: desks, file cabinets, and a few chairs. Bullets poured in through the windows from automatic weapons. Griffin's minions clung to ropes strung from the roof. They wore goggles equipped with special aiming technology, even though that hadn't helped the person who had shot at Amara. Officers shot at the attackers, but not even one of Griffin's henchmen fell from the ropes. Bullet proof vests and lightweight armor on their arms and legs prevented them from receiving damage from almost any ranged attack.

Amara didn't have time to grab her costume from the lab, so she needed to keep moving so that no one would discover her identity.

She ran to the windows while dodging bullets. After several especially heavy strides, she dove through the remaining glass. It fell in slow motion around her in a way that was reminiscent of a waterfall. She grabbed a rope before she fell off the edge of the building and swung onto the outside wall where she began running sideways. Amara's powers continued to amaze her. She was able to run on the sides of buildings, pass through solid objects, and run faster than the speed of sound!

_Focus. There are peoples' lives at stake inside that building._

Still sprinting on the side of the building, she used the dangling ropes to tie up the assailants before they could move another inch. Then, she slowly lowered them to the ground. People inside the building commented:

"Is that the new speedster?"

"How did she know to come here?"

"Where did Detective Jones go?"

Amara became worried on the last one. She hoped that Joe would fill in for her.

Shortly after she finished with the assailants, a yellow bolt of lightning shot in front of her. The lightning slowed, and the Flash appeared in its midst. Amara vibrated her face at superspeed so that people wouldn't recognize her.

Barry gave her a bewildered expression that personified her own feelings. They were both wondering how she took down so many people at once: twenty-four grown men. It seemed too easy. They stared at the people whom Amara had tied up for a couple of moments. The perpetrators were still conscious, but it appeared that their hands and guns were tied up.

When the speedsters had recovered from the shock, Barry told Amara, "Hey, I want to apologize for what happened back there at STAR Labs. You're obviously capable of taking care of yourself from what I can tell." He looked down. "Also, I never really took in the idea of how bad it was for you when you were with Griffin. You deserve the chance to try to live normally. I hope I can make it up to you after what I said earlier."

"I went a little too far also. Sometimes it happens, but we need to learn to push through it, right?" She held her hand out; he grabbed it. A small whizzing sound seemed to fly pass her until it ended with a clatter on the sidewalk. An energy bullet shot from one of Griffin's guns had hit a pole behind Amara and promptly dropped.

_Yep, their aim still sucks._

They had managed to get their hands and guns free and began shooting at Flash and Acceler8. Flash grabbed the bullets in midair before they hit anyone or anything else; although, he had to put on an extra burst of speed for these special bullets. He seized their weapons and vibrated his hand through the pile of guns he had collected. Dropping the automatic weapons to the ground, Flash knocked the men unconscious to prevent any more mischief from them for a while.

"Good work, Flash and . . . whoever you are," A police officer shouted from the window above them.

"Uh, just call me Acceler8," Amara called to them. She distorted her voice by vibrating her vocal chords at superspeed.

"Well, thank you. We'll take it from here," he shouted.

Flash and Acceler8 nodded in agreement to let the officer take care of the business. They left the scene together with the attackers still tied up and unconscious. Acceler8 headed back to STAR Labs while running at Flash's side. Amara was glad Singh had agreed to let her rejoin the force but was worried about the possibility of Barry having a talk with her once they arrived at the lab. If they did have that conversation, she doubted it would be very enjoyable. Hopefully their short conversation at the CCPD took the place of that possible dispute in the future.

As Acceler8 entered the lab with Flash, Cisco sighed in relief, and Caitlin smiled at their return.

Wells asked Acceler8 with humor that was unnatural for him, "How was the field trip?"

"It's like I'm blind," she replied, shaking her head. "I've been overwhelmed by darkness for what seems to be a lifetime. Now that I open my eyes, I finally see light, hope, but I can't truly reach it because I'm blinded by its brightness. I have a sort of afterimage from glancing at the light at the end of the tunnel which is making it even harder for me to move on because I can't see anything but the memories from my past. I'm not sure how I'm going to get my life back on track after all this time of darkness." She surprised herself with her quick answer and blamed it on her nearly-constant thoughts of such problems.

"We're here to help you get through it. We helped Barry with it too," Caitlin answered reassuringly.

"Thanks, guys," Amara replied. They had helped her so much. She could count on this team with her life. She shouldn't have been so angry at them for not letting her leave. Inside her heart, she knew they could have helped her.

**A/N: The next chapter title is about as scary as it can get. It is . . . drumroll please . . . "The Death of Barry Allen!" BUT you can rejoice in the fact that I already have this done, so all you have to do is click "next" to find out what happens. Enjoy your reading! :)**


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The Death of Barry Allen

2 weeks later

"Hey guys, have you seen Barry?" Amara asked Cisco and Caitlin. He had been missing for a day. This wasn't like Barry.

Cisco shrugged. "I haven't seen him."

"He might be visiting the Arrow," Caitlin pointed out. She continued sanitizing her tools in the med bay.

Amara remarked, "Maybe that's it," before her phone beeped. She pulled it out of her pocket and read the latest text message.

"They've got a body on the east side." She grabbed her bag and ran toward the crime scene. Her unzipped jacket flapped behind her alongside purple lightning.

Hopefully my clothes won't catch on fire like the last time I came to a crime scene.

It was not a good time whenever her clothes caught on fire. When that happened, she had to quickly run into a nearby clothes store and buy some clothes that usually weren't even her style.

She skidded to a stop with care to avoid ruining her shoes. Everyone at the crime scene looked strange. The area felt abnormal too, more abnormal than a dead body by a flower shop, anyway. After a quick glance at the crime scene, she could only see one evidence tag. Everyone there seemed to be depressed out of their minds. Could the culprit be a meta-human that killed people by depression?

Nope, work is what kills people via depression.

Her only other thought was, "_What is happening?"_

Most of the officers moved slowly. They had somber expressions as they handled the little evidence that was found. One officer pulled out a bouquet of flowers from the garbage can and inspected it for a name. The officer pulled off the notecard from the bouquet and carefully inserted it into an evidence bag. Those flowers must have been from the nearby flower shop.

Linda Park, a reporter at Central City Picture News, was leaving the scene as quickly as she could with her four-inch high heels. Her hair blew behind her in the strong wind. Weather alerts had been popping up on her phone almost all day: "Abnormally high winds, ninety percent chance of severe storms, possible hail damage." She hoped that one of the Mardon brothers wasn't back. They were known for their notorious crimes and weather controlling powers. One of the brothers had died about the same time the Flash began his career in Central City.

Linda Park began texting someone. It was urgent; most people don't walk in stilettos and text at the same time. Also, it was strange for her to be at a crime scene given that she was a sports reporter. Amara felt like Sherlock Holmes at the crime scene, at least, more Sherlock Holmesy than usual.

Other reporters were being told to vacate the premises. They angrily refused to leave, but the officers denied them. Usually, reporters would be allowed to stay, as long as they stayed behind the police tape, but in this scenario, there was so little evidence that the officers were doing everything they could to widen the area. That would mean that the reporters had to stay far away so as to prevent them from possibly tampering with evidence. Even something as seemingly insignificant as a piece of gum on the ground could be used to track the DNA of the perpetrator. A reporter could unwittingly get it stuck on the bottom of his or her shoe, inadvertently dragging the homicide case out from a couple of days to months or even years long.

Turning to her right to scrutinize the area, Amara saw that Joe was by a police car. He was usually the head of investigating homicides. This time, he was leaning against the car, not talking to people like he normally did. His arms were crossed and set on the hood of the car. His head lay buried within his arms. His back quickly rose and fell in irregular motions. She stepped lightly towards him and moved her hand to set on his shoulder, but she jerked it away when she realized he was sobbing. Amara had never seen Detective West cry. Singh stood behind him and whispered something inaudible to her, but it was reassuring to the detective.

She looked around some more, but she didn't see Barry at the crime scene. Maybe he was still visiting the Arrow like Caitlin suggested. She thought she remembered him saying he would be gone for a bit.

_Yes. That must have been it._

Amara practically tiptoed to one of the investigators who seemed to be the least depressed by what had happened; however, the man still had a gloomy shadow that seemed to be cast about him like everyone at the scene.

"What happened?" she asked quietly. There seemed to be an unspoken quiet game being played in the area.

"Come here." He gestured sluggishly to the tarp-covered body after handing her some latex gloves. "The body was found early this morning by a reporter from CCPN, uh, Park was it? Linda Park, I think."

"I just saw her leave."

He continued, "Yeah, it's sad. I didn't know the guy too well, but everybody here did. Nobody likes finding somebody they know as an ice-cold corpse in front of a flower shop. I feel real sorry for this guy's girlfriend. I heard that he was getting flowers for her when he just got killed out of the blue. Poor guy." He somberly glanced at the blue tarp.

With everyone's mood at the crime scene, she was nervous to lay eyes on the body. It angered her that she was curious to see who it was.

What kind of person wants to see a deceased person she knows? She answered her own sick question. Someone indoctrinated by Griffin.

When he pulled back the cover, she could see that the victim was in his twenties, had dark hair, and . . . she knew who this was.

"No!" she exclaimed with a sob. She turned away and covered her mouth. She squeezed her eyes closed, but she couldn't get the image of that man out of her head. She hated seeing young people die, but this was just . . . she didn't even know what to say.

How? Who did this?

"I'm sorry." The officer put his hand on her shoulder. "We all knew him," he added in a whisper, "except for me."

She knelt and put her gloved hand on the victim's cheek. "I'm so sorry, Barry. I'll find whoever did this to you."

His open eyes began to haunt her with an emptiness that was the opposite of the Barry she knew. Reaching over, she tried to close his eyes, but they wouldn't close. It was as if they were frozen in that position.

Part of her remained doubtful that this meant anything good.

"_Maybe that is just some kind of medical problem that happens sometimes when people . . ._" She took a deep breath to absorb this calmly, _"__when people die."_

She didn't want to see Barry like this, but if his murderer was ever going to be found, someone had to gather the guts to look into the face of the crime and of the victim. She had to gather all her strength to continue looking at his ashen face. She felt his cheek once again. She was surprised to feel that his skin wasn't even cold. It wasn't warm either. Amara felt ridiculous for checking, but she moved her fingers down to his neck to check for a pulse just to be sure.

No. No, pulse.

She cautiously took off her glove. Hopefully she wouldn't get enough of her DNA on his face to make the pathologist conducting the autopsy deduce that she committed the crime. Since Barry was one of their own, Singh would not hesitate to convict anyone who had even a shred of evidence against him- or herself. She moved her hand toward his face again. The officer behind her made a sound to protest her actions, but she continued. Something told her that this wasn't what it seemed. Her hand brushed against his skin. It felt so strange. It didn't feel like normal skin. It had the texture something like silicone.

This can't be the real Barry.

Even with that thought, doubt still screamed throughout her mind.

What if this really is Barry? What if he really is dead? Am I just being optimistic?

She didn't want to lose the man who had brought her out of the darkness that was once her entire life. She would put all her effort into finding out who did this to him and where the real Barry was. She turned to the officer with renewed hope. "Can we access the security footage in this area?"

"Uh, yeah. We can try. I can't promise the footage on there will be high quality though."

"Thank you so much," she told him happily. She restrained herself from letting her hope shine through and overwhelm her. If that really was Barry . . .

"What are you thinking?" he asked out of curiosity.

"For one, I think a meta-human did this. Two, I can't tell you anything more." She continued inspecting the presumably false corpse for any more proof.

"Ok . . ." he answered nervously before he headed toward Singh to ask him for the footage. Even with permission, it would take a while to get the footage in their possession lawfully. She followed the officer to talk to Joe.

They must not have figured out that this Barry was fake because no one had taken a long look at him.

She understood why no one would want to be the one to do a forensics test on their coworker. It was hard for her to look at him, even with her mind set on the idea that the corpse wasn't the real Barry Allen.

They stopped in front of Joe's police car. Joe was standing and had regained his composure that was nowhere to be found earlier.

"Joe," she told him, "I know what this looks like. I understand how you feel." She leaned toward him and whispered, "You and I both know that Barry is not someone you can just throw a few punches at and be done with. Something about this isn't right."

He stepped away and looked at her with an angry glare. "You're right. _This_ isn't right. My son just got killed, and you're trying to give me hope. You haven't known him nearly as long as I have. That's Barry out there under that sheet! Do even know what it feels like to investigate your own son's murder?" He turned around and covered his mouth. "Oh, Barry!" He slammed his hands on the car. People around the crime scene, including some reporters who hadn't agreed to leave yet, began to turn their attention to Joe.

"He wasn't cold," she explained to him calmly. She desperately tried to keep her focus on Joe, even though her eyes continually drifted to the sides where people were beginning to step forward. Some of them thought that a fight was coming up. She took a deep breath and continued. "His skin felt fake."

The detective turned around. He gave her a look that would have caused a pathological liar to tell the truth. "What do you mean?"

"I think this may be the work of a meta-human," she answered, staring into his eyes.

The light came back to Joe's eyes, and he whispered, "You mean that Barry is still alive?"

Amara nodded as she answered, "I think so. He might be some meta's prisoner right now, so we need to get to STAR Labs pronto. Stay here."

"Why can't I come?" he asked disappointedly.

"I'm not strong enough to carry two adult men when one of them is as limp as a––"

"I get the point," he interrupted.

After thinking for a moment about how she would get Barry's body to STAR Labs, she grabbed the body and began to run to the lab, abandoning all caution of her identity. This was Barry. He was worth more than what was under her mask.

The blue sheet flew off into the fierce winds that were plaguing Central City and landed on a car as Amara sped through the streets. Her purple lightning whizzed between cars and rocked them like cradles. If her boyfriend wasn't missing, she might have been enjoying her speed.

Caitlin was alert as soon as she stepped through the doorway. "What happened?"

Cisco looked like he needed some more sleep until he realized that the body she was carrying looked like Barry. "Oh my gosh! Barry! Earth to Barry!" Cisco demanded her to put him on the med bay bed.

"Calm down, guys. I don't think this is really him. I want you to check it out," she told Cisco. He took a deep, but shaky breath as he took in this surprising news.

They remained flabbergasted but went to work. They attempted to take skin samples, blood samples, and checked his temperature.

After a while, Caitlin finished getting the results. "We've got a few problems. For one, this isn't even skin. It's silicone. Second, he is at room temperature, so unless he's cold-blooded, that's not normal. Third, he can't be cold-blooded anyway because there is no blood in this . . . whatever it is."

"I think it looks like a mannequin or model," Amara remarked.

Cisco had his villain naming epiphany of the week. "Oh! I just had a great idea! Whichever meta did this, his name is now, drumroll please . . . Mannequin Maestro! Now, we just need to find out who Mannequin Maestro is, where he is, and where the real Barry is," Cisco told Caitlin and Amara, smiling.

Cisco sat at his computers to hack the security footage from the cameras near the flower shop. Caitlin continued to perform tests on the model. Amara was amazed by how realistic this fake looked. It appeared to be exactly like Barry, even down to how his hair was the last time she saw him and his beauty marks. An idea struck her that she thought might be a good point. She brought it to the attention of their small team.

"Wait, guys." Everyone turned to her at the sound of the sudden noise after the quiet moments they had used to try to help Barry. "What if the meta's power isn't _making_ mannequins; it's _turning_ people into mannequins," she suggested. She turned her attention back to the model on the bed.

Caitlin began to speak. "That would mean—"

"—Barry's right here," Cisco finished. They looked worriedly at Barry.

Caitlin jumped from her chair and rushed to him. "Barry, can you hear me?"

Amara wasn't sure, but it looked like his hand moved. The others seemed to notice it too because Caitlin exclaimed, "We need to find Mannequin Maestro fast! I think every minute Barry is stuck as a mannequin, he's going to lose his brain function. If we don't find whoever this man is soon, Barry could be gone for good."

Cisco pointed at Barry. "Does anyone else find this creepy? Anyone? We might have a _living dead_ situation on our hands here." No one answered him, so he rolled his eyes and began to access the data from the security cameras. Not long after, the footage popped up.

"I've got the video," Cisco announced. He slowly glanced over his shoulder to look at what he thought could be Zombie Barry. Caitlin and Amara gathered at the desk. Cisco clicked the play button. Different pieces of footage from multiple cameras in the area of the flower shop were shown on the footage in a collage-like format. After some fast forwarding, they could see Barry walking down the street. He was holding a bouquet of flowers with a small card. They were the same flowers from the trash bin.

"Cisco, pause the video." He obeyed Amara and noticed the card that was within the bouquet. She could tell that he was as curious as she was when he zoomed in on the card. On it was written Amara's initials in Barry's handwriting.

Amara covered her mouth as her eyes watered.

Those were for me. Why was he walking?

She answered her own question when she thought, _He must have been walking so he wouldn't ruin the flowers._

"Barry," she whispered to him, even though she doubted he could hear her, "you didn't have to do that." She could almost imagine what it would've been like for him to give them to her.

Caitlin could understand what Amara was feeling. The loss of her fiancé had caused Caitlin grief, but she had found a way to push through it. She set her hand on Amara's shoulder and gave her a reassuring look. Amara nodded in thanks and turned her attention back to the video when Cisco played it. A man in a black trench coat strode around the corner. He avoided stepping in the scattered puddles, presumably to protect his precious black dress shoes. The coat possessed a metal insignia above his heart with a thundercloud and lightning bolt.

In the video, it looked like Barry had nodded in greeting to the man. The trench coat man stopped suddenly, his head still down. Then he gradually lifted his gaze so he could look at Barry. He blinked a few times, and then held up his hands and moved them in a way that looked like he was a puppeteer. Barry suddenly began scratching at his arms and shouting in pain. Then, bit by bit, his body became rigid. It began with his arms and legs and moved to his torso over a period of a couple minutes. The flowers dropped from his hand and fell into a puddle on the ground. The water splashed onto the trench coat man's shoes. He grimaced with the splash of befouled water that had sprinkled on him. As soon as Barry fell to the ground like a toy dropped by a child, the man picked up the flowers, inspected them, and threw them in the garbage can in disgust. Then the man walked away, leaving Barry to be found by someone the next morning who would think that he was murdered. No one but Amara would notice the mannequin wasn't a true corpse. Amara assumed this was because everyone knew him too well to be able to look at his face and realize that his skin wasn't even real. It horrified Amara that this man, Mannequin Maestro, was much like herself when she had worked for Griffin. If she hadn't joined Team Flash, she might have been in that exact man's position. She would have committed the same crime. She lowered her head in regret for what was a conceivable thought.

Cisco went back then paused the video and zoomed in on the man's face. He pulled up the criminal database. After a couple of seconds, Cisco identified the man.

Cisco explained his find to them. "His name is Tyler Osmium. He only has one assault of battery. Other than that, he's clean. Looks like he used to be a scientist who worked with silicone until he went missing after the particle accelerator explosion."

"Osmium? Are you telling me his last name is an element?" Caitlin asked him, excitement on the edge of her voice.

Cisco shrugged at Caitlin's comment. "Yeah, I guess so. Maybe his great grandparents were science nerds like us."

"I think that would be cool to have the same last name as an element on the periodic table," Caitlin remarked longingly.

"At least yours somewhat deals with a compound," Cisco told her out of lack of any other uplifting comments. When they were done with their small talk, Cisco turned back to his screen. When he studied the picture of Osmium closer than before, he spotted something that changed their view on this man's disappearance; however, Amara already knew this latest development. She was hoping they wouldn't have to bring her past into the present.

"Wait a minute." Cisco zoomed in on the symbol on the front of his trench coat. That was an amazing representation of everything the group stood for. They created chaos no matter where they went or what they did. They brought out the storms in the most tranquil of people with their innovative methods of indoctrinating people to think that what they were doing was right. Thankfully, they hadn't gotten that far with Amara before she left, but they had still left a deep scar in her she presumed would never heal. While she was in that organization's grasp, she had thought she would never escape their evil hand that reached into everyone's heart they met.

Her mind wandered to Barry's help when he put everything he had on the line when he took her under his wing.

_It's my turn to risk everything for him._

"That's the symbol for that lab group that I used to work for," Amara told him with more than just a touch of anger in her voice.

Cisco was not pleased with what she had called them. "Okay, we've got to name these guys. It is not catchy enough when you just say, 'that lab group.'" Cisco gave her a scrutinizing gaze. "Let's name them—"

"—Thunder Corps," Amara told them quietly.

Caitlin looked at her strangely. "What?"

"That's their name, Thunder Corps."

Cisco set his hand on her shoulder. "Amara, Amara, Amara. You should just leave the naming to me. Although, I kinda like that one. Wow! Try saying "Amara" ten times as fast!"

Caitlin held out her hands in a "hold up" gesture. "Wait, this is serious. She was kidnapped by these people and held hostage for about a year." She looked at Amara.

She sympathized with Amara when the rest of the team joked about the present situation, particularly Cisco. He was great, but sometimes he would get a little out of hand. However, Amara felt she could always count on Caitlin. Amara hoped Caitlin's gentle attitude would never run cold.

Amara gathered her courage and looked back at Cisco. "I wasn't the one who named them that. They named themselves."

"I hate it when the villains name themselves!" he exclaimed angrily.

"They must have sent Osmium to do . . . whatever it was he did to Barry, so it would be easier to grab him for their evil purposes," Amara explained. She knew Thunder Corps was up to something unethical. Maybe it had something to do with those large tanks that were made from the stolen pieces of tech.

Cisco continued, "Anyway . . . I'm going to keep looking for the Thunder Corps baddies while you two do . . . I don't know. Maybe you could find some way to turn Barry back to normal."

Cisco turned back to his computer and continued his search for Thunder Corps' base. Thunder Corps had moved after Amara left the organization. When Amara thought of Barry, her gaze fell to him lying on the medical bed. She hoped Caitlin and Cisco would be able to help him.

"I've got a location for their lab," Cisco announced as he stood up from his chair. He attempted popping his knuckles, but then he announced, "I should take a note from Felicity and not do that again. Ouch. Anyway . . ." he continued while rubbing his sore knuckles, "they're on the north side of the city. It's a warehouse with a sign in front that reads," he paused and took a closer look at the screen, "STAR Labs? How could it be here? Do we have a secret building around here or something?"

"Their lab isn't here," Caitlin informed him. "There was a smaller STAR Labs that began construction on the north side, but after Dr. Wells was in his car accident, he shut down the project and built this one here that was equipped with the particle accelerator."

They were amazed by Caitlin's knowledge of the history of STAR Labs.

"We need to get Osmium here ASAP. Cisco, how are we going to stop this guy?" Amara asked urgently.

Cisco thought for a moment. Then, he pointed his index finger into the air, looked at the ceiling, and slowly told her, "Well, to stop a marionette, you need to cut the strings, so to stop this guy, we need to find some way to cut his connection."

"Maybe we can use the radio waves in the area to affect his connection," Caitlin suggested. "If we can amplify the waves to a high enough frequency, we might be able to distract him long enough to be able to stop him." Caitlin then thought of something else and added, "The problem is, you would have to go into the sound-amplified area to stop him."

Amara urgently told them, "I've got to hurry and stop this man. If I don't catch him soon, we might never find a way to help Barry."

"You superheroes rush off too quickly," Cisco exclaimed angrily. "Maybe you would stop the bad guys faster if you slowed down for a moment and let _us_ solve the technical problems."

She was desperate to save Barry. Osmium could be the only person who could stop the process that was happening to Barry.

"Can't you make some kind of special ear plug to block the sound?" Caitlin asked Cisco.

"I can try, but I can't just pop these villain-stopping machines out like candy," Cisco told her. He pushed himself up from his swivel chair and hurried to his invention room.

Amara needed to ask Caitlin something that had been bothering her. "Even if we do stop Osmium, how are we going to get Barry back to normal?"

She sighed. Caitlin didn't have to say anything. She didn't know how they were going to get him back. Even if they did capture Osmium, they might not be able to get Barry back to normal. Amara decided she would just go to work to try to escape her thoughts of Barry. "Bye, Caitlin. Let me know when the earplugs are done," she announced before running away.

Amara arrived at the CCPD to see that everyone looked depressed like earlier in the day. Joe seemed to be stressed by the influx of complaints. Plenty of people were still asking where Barry's body went. When she came to talk to the stressed detective, she heard part of his conversation with Eddie.

"I know Barry was like a son to you."

"Eddie, Iris isn't gonna like hearing about this. I think there might be a meta-human behind this, and I think that we can get Barry back, but just in case he's dea–– uh, gone, I want you to comfort Iris. Don't leave her side unless you have to, you hear me? She's gonna be torn up about this loss; you and I both know that she does some stupid stuff when she's sad. Keep her from doing anything she'll regret."

"Don't worry about Iris. I'll take care of her."

Joe patted his shoulder and looked into the background where Amara was waiting for him. He nodded at Eddie in thanks before walking to her. "What's the progress with takin' down that meta?" he asked quietly while staring ahead to try to avoid the possibility of anyone noticing them.

"I think we've got a way to stop him."

"How's Barry?" he asked with a worried edge to his voice.

She hesitated. She didn't want to be the one to tell Joe that Barry might be gone for good. "I don't know how we're going to get him back, Joe."

He turned and stared her in the eye. "You guys at STAR Labs shouldn't be getting' my hopes up that we could save Barry when he might not come back." Joe strode off angrily and left Amara to mosey to her desk and glance at her scarce amount of decorations. She owned a solar dancing toy that wasn't moving. It was a red flower with green leaves that seemed far too ordinary that she got from Caitlin. She only kept it out of courtesy. There was also a picture frame containing a photo of Amara's parents.

Why do I still have this photo?

She picked it up, studying it in her hands. The frame was mahogany with hearts carved into the corners and "family" carved at the bottom. She ran her fingers over the letters.

My parents still think I'm dead. I should probably get in touch with them soon.

Her final "decorations" consisted of case files that she hadn't gotten around to because of her alter ego. Accompanying those case files was a lot of dust that had settled on the desk she had hardly used. She decided on working on her multitudinous amount of cases while she waited for Cisco to finish with his special ear plugs.

Amara always found it depressing to read over the criminal reports. People who loved their families had committed horrible crimes. Normal law-abiding citizens committed battery and assault. During crises, people of her city had pillaged and looted. What had happened to this beautiful city while she was gone during those long months in agonizing solitude with Griffin? Where had the hearts of these people journeyed to? What was happening to her world and the hearts of it? Being a superhero tends to make on realize how corrupt the world is. She shook her head and tried to be glad that she could do something about this epidemic that had swept across society.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Osmium

2 hours later

Amara checked her phone for the fifth time in the last half hour. She had finished all of her cases. She realized once she had started that most of them just had to be filed away.

"Ding."

_Finally, I got a text!_

"I finished the earplugs," it read.

_That took long enough._

She dropped her phone into her pocket and grabbed her jacket. She was about to run out into the elevator with her speed since no one was watching, but at that moment, Iris West came out of the elevator. She had tears and mascara streaming down her face.

Amara didn't know too much about her, but she did know that Iris and Barry grew up like siblings.

"Dad!" Iris made a beeline for her dad's desk.

"What is it, Iris?" Joe spun around. Her eyes told the whole story. She knew. Iris didn't know that Barry was the Flash, so she didn't have that hope in her that he could possibly be alive. She didn't know that Team Flash was there for Barry. She fell into his embrace as he asked, "Who told you?"

"Linda Park. She told me that she was going to get flowers for someone today when she saw the body. Dad, what happened to Barry? Who did this?" Iris asked him in-between sobs.

Joe continued to hold her. He spoke from his heart when he told her, "We're gonna get the man who did this. You hear me, Iris? We are _not_ going to let that man get away with this."

"Why would someone do this to Barry? He didn't do anything, Dad."

"With some monsters, it's better to not understand why they do something," he responded quietly.

That conversation made Amara's heart break almost as bad as it had when she saw Barry as the subject of the crime scene.

"Why can't I tell her what happened to Barry?" A new thought that she knew she needed to obey immediately popped into her head. "It is Barry's duty to tell her that he's the Flash."

Amara let them have what little privacy they had in the crowded precinct and slowly walked to the elevators. She realized after some of the events that occurred on that day she needed to slow down to enjoy her life and the people around her before she lost them.

She thought about that as she ran to STAR Labs. She met up with Cisco at the lab where she knew he would give her the ear plugs. When he saw her come in, she could tell that he was excited to show her his latest invention.

"I call these babies the sonic inhibitors. Here you go." Cisco handed her the ear plugs. Pieces of plastic stood out that would wrap around the outside of her ear to stay on. The plugs themselves consisted of small device on the side of each one.

"What do these parts do?" Amara asked him, eying the devices.

"Those are what really make the sonic inhibitors work. They basically reflect the sonic waves that we will be amplifying. That keeps it out of your ear drums and reflects that sound back to Mannequin Maestro," he explained in his usual Cisco tone. She loved his take on special names for his inventions.

"What is your plan?" she asked him impatiently. She had been waiting almost all day to stop Osmium.

"You just need to get his attention and not get mannequined. I'll deal with the amplifying of the sonic waves."

"'Mannequined' is not a word, Cisco," she told him flatly, before a smile grew on her face.

Cisco gave her a look that said, "What other word should I use?" He continued his game plan by telling her, "I'm going to take over the cell towers, cell phones, really anything I can get my hacking fingers on, and rack up the radio waves. They should become so intense that he loses his connection to any mannequins he might have which should allow you to knock him out. After that, just bring him here for us to find a way to help Bar—"

"Cisco, what's that noise?"

At that moment, Barry began to get up from the table. Amara thought he was returning to normal somehow, but he moved almost . . . robotically. His skin still appeared to be artificial.

"Uh, Cisco."

"I see it too." he told her slowly after he turned to look at Barry. They both gradually backed away from the zombified Barry Allen. "Hey, buddy. You're not evil or anything, right? I really don't want an evil speedster attacking me." Cisco turned to her angrily. "Didn't I tell you guys that we could have Zombie Barry on our hands?"

The upside about mind control and zombies alike is that usually the victims are very slow. "I think Mannequin Maestro is controlling him, like a marionette. Do you think that he's in the building?"

Showing her his worried face, Cisco gave her a sidelong glance that did not help to calm her nerves that were shooting through the roof. "You are probably right, knowing our luck." He screamed at the ceiling, "Where is the security in this building?"

They both paused and listened to footsteps coming from down the hall. They were heavy but slow. Amara could tell they belonged to a stranger. "Stop messing around and get in the Pipeline!" she demanded.

"Why?"

"Up the volume, then get in a cell in the particle accelerator to protect your ears. I'll fight Mannequin Maestro and Barry up here. You only made one set of ear plugs, and I'm gonna need them."

Cisco had concerned look in his eyes. "You know, I won't be able to help you once I'm in a cell. You'll have to fight both metas on your own, and I'm not even sure if my plan to stop this guy will work." He set his hands on her shoulders. They both knew it was hard enough to go up against one meta-human . . . but two? That kind of fight would be almost impossible to come out alive, and even harder to come out as the victor.

"If I don't do this, then Barry might me gone for good. Team Flash needs him more than me. Go."

She put in the sonic inhibitors. Cisco gave all the audio in the area a boost of sound and covered his ears, but it still looked like it hurt. He reluctantly ran for the Pipeline after giving her a final look of concern.

Mannequin Maestro's footsteps finally ended when he reached the Cortex. He slowly walked toward Amara with a creepy glare, an evil gleam in his eyes. She knew that gleam was from Thunder Corps. They had done the same to her, but Barry had mended that tear.

The man inspected her suit. He seemed recognize her, probably from some file that Thunder Corps had shown him. He began to move his hands in the air like he was playing with the strings of a marionette. Barry shambled toward her in correlation to the stranger's commands. That was the slowest she had ever seen Barry.

Barry tried to punch her across the face, but she dodged it. Much to her dismay, Mannequin Maestro was smart. He used her momentum from the dodge to make Zombie Barry kick his leg out to trip her. She fell and smacked her head on the hard floor but quickly recovered. She pulled back her fist to punch Barry. She flung her arm forward and hit him square in his silicone jaw. He stiffly staggered backwards and bumped against the wall. Zombie Barry recovered quickly and raced for her without his super speed. She realized that Mannequin Maestro must not have known what his powers were, or he surely would have used them. Thunder Corps most likely gave him a picture that showed Barry's face on it and ordered him to retrieve this man for reasons unbeknownst to him.

Amara raced toward Zombie Barry and hit him at speeds which she thought would hurt . . . for a normal person anyway. He smacked the wall behind him again but recovered without any visible damage. He advanced to attack her again. She prepared herself for further attacks from Zombie Barry. She never thought she would have to fight him again.

While Amara fought Barry, Mannequin Maestro moved his hands again to activate his powers on a different subject. One of his hands seemed to control Barry while the other turned Amara into his latest mannequin. She began to lose feeling in her toes and fingers little by little. The numbing crept up through her arms and legs. An urge to itch her arms threatened to overcome her. Her skin felt as if it was in need of lotion. Bit by bit, she couldn't even flex the joints of her wrists or ankles. Zombie Barry's attacks ended for the time being as she was left with a feeling that can only be compared to being submerged in a tank full of ice moving at one centimeter per second. It felt as though she was standing on stilts once the numbness crept up her legs.

At the same time, the volume increased little by little in the room. The sonic inhibitors protected her from the noise as Cisco claimed they would. Barry didn't seem to be affected by the blaring that must have been plaguing Osmium. Mannequin Maestro began to stagger, then collapsed on the floor from the intense sound. Barry also fell to the ground from Osmium's lack of orders, but Amara caught him in midair by making herself fall with the remaining range of motion she possessed. The feeling returned to her fingers, and Barry's skin softened. He started breathing, and the warmth came back to his skin.

She held him close to herself and whispered, "Don't you even dare ever do that again." She planted a kiss on his cheek despite her anger. She picked him up and set him down gently on the bed, then turned off the extreme audio that had enveloped the room. She took out the sonic inhibitors and set them down on the large desks in the Cortex.

Cisco was on the computer screen that they used to monitor prisoners in the particle accelerator. "Amara! I know you're up there, so please let me out. Now would be nice! I can tell that you turned the sound off. Hello?" It was too bad Cisco had missed the cheap zombie horror flick while he was in a cell.

Amara shook her head, chuckling. Then she grabbed Osmium and switched him with Cisco. After some clean up and hearing recovery, they waited for Barry to wake up and for the anxiety to dissipate.

A couple of hours later, Barry opened his eyes and stated, "I had a really weird dream. I was made of a weird substance. I think it might have been silicone, but that just sounds weird. I felt like a zombie. I don't even know what being a zombie feels like!"

Cisco and Amara shared a good laugh, leaving Barry confused.

They arrived at the police station to see that everyone was even more stressed than before. As they headed to Joe's desk, several officers stopped everything that they were doing to look at Barry. He nodded at them in greeting. Amara thought one person was about to faint from the idea of seeing a ghost. Captain Singh stormed out of his office. An officer was left inside, speechless, while Singh headed to Joe's desk. He threw a stack of papers onto Joe's desk which made him quickly look up from his computer. "Detective Jones and Barry Allen's body disappeared at the same time. Get her back here right now for a word. I don't understand why you're not telling us what is going on. Barry was your son!"

Joe was stressed, but confident. He sighed and explained, "Captain Singh, I already told you that someone is behind this. That's all I can tell you right now."

Singh was not pleased at all with Joe's answer. He slammed his hands onto his desk. "No kidding 'someone is behind this'! You think your son just dropped dead? And why are you defending Detective Jones? I hate to say this, but all the evidence is stacked against her. We even found a notecard with her name on it at the scene of the crime. Get her over here now, or I'll send a unit to her house or STAR Labs or wherever the heck she is and arrest her for probable cause!"

"She can't come right now."

"I don't care if she can't come right now! For all I know, you could be lying to me. I can't trust anyone anymore because I only know one person who is able to do something like this without leaving any evidence and who might have a motive for killing Allen. I need her here before she runs away, and we're not able to find her. If the public finds out that we didn't solve the murder of one of our own—"

"—you'll lose your job? Listen. Like I said, I care about Barry. I just . . . can't tell you all of the information right now for some reasons that I can't elaborate on."

Singh made a quick comeback. "So, you're telling me that you have nothing to show for an entire day of work. In fact, you have resulted in the crime lab hardly getting any evidence today, partly because the body from the homicide is somewhere you won't disclose. Maybe you shouldn't have a place at the CCPD if you can't even solve your own son's murder!"

Joe came back from that insult before Amara could snap her fingers (without her super speed though). "You listen here. You've been sitting in your comfortable office all day while I've been over here, trying to solve this case the best I can. I already told you, I can't just hand out all the details. We have to wait until—"

Joe needed to end this conversation. She glanced at Barry and nodded at him. He stepped in between Joe and Singh. Singh's mouth dropped while Joe's curled into a knowing and relieved smile. The tension between them was instantly cut when Singh pointed at Barry and asked, "H-how is he still alive?"

Amara hid her smile behind her hand while Barry explained, "A criminal made this huge mess."

Joe spoke up. "Singh, I told you someone was behind this', like all the other crazy things in Central City."

Singh shook his head and rubbed his face with his hands. "At least you stopped the perp that did this, right?" he asked while he slid his hand down his face.

"We stopped Tyler Osmium," Amara told Singh.

He put his hand down and narrowed his eyebrows. "How did you know what this perpetrator's name was before I did, and how did you stop him?"

She looked to Barry for help. She didn't want to tell Singh that she was a meta-human, let alone Acceler8.

Barry quickly but awkwardly filled in, "She helps out at STAR Labs with me. _They_ found the guy who did this."

Singh nodded slowly; however, he appeared to be very unconvinced. He slowly walked away to call an informal meeting after glancing back at Barry and Amara. She let out the sigh that she had been holding in and told Barry, "Thanks."

He nodded at her then quietly stated, "Any time."

She was overjoyed to see Barry's true eyes again. They stared at each other for a while until Singh started speaking. It surprisingly wasn't awkward at all to just stare at each other. She thought that they were both enjoying the moments they had regained, especially since she had thought only a couple of hours earlier that they would never see this place or each other's faces again.

Singh began, "Everyone, Allen has returned! Allen didn't really die, just as a clarification. Sorry for all these false deaths, but this is Central City. Get used to it. Now, get back to work and finish your cases!"

Amara thought his speech was a bit too quick and to the point, but Singh obviously didn't care. Some officers remained standing in place with the shock of the realization plastered on their faces. Singh gave them a stern look which encouraged them to return to work. Barry and Amara stood there for a moment watching everyone return to their desks. Then, a woman came running out of the elevators. She seemed to be in a much better mood than earlier when she had mascara running down her face. Barry turned her way and smiled at her quick appearance. She could imagine him thinking, "Iris must have unwittingly learned a thing or two from the Flash."

"Barry!" Iris embraced him, then slapped him across the face. "Don't you ever do that again!" Barry rubbed his cheek while she pulled towards him and told him, "Oh, Barry. I'm so happy you're okay." She embraced him again. Amara loved to see how the two of them reacted to one another. They seemed to know almost everything about each other, except of course Iris's lack of knowledge that Barry was the Flash. They really did seem to behave like brother and sister.

Eddie Thawne winked at Joe. The detective nodded in return. Joe had faith for the first time that Eddie could take care of Iris.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Breath in my Lungs

6 weeks later

"We've got a ping," Cisco exclaimed in a voice that made everyone rush to his desk.

Barry quickly asked, "What is it?"

"There's been a bank robbery on the city's east side."

"Got it!" Barry answered. He already had his suit on from the previous robberies that night.

Amara sped into the room and skidded to a halt before she ran into the large desk. "Hey, I'm coming too!"

Barry hesitated on his "Yeah, go ahead and take this one. I'll stay here. I need a break anyway." So far, she had gotten hurt on nearly every mission, which wasn't a good record in anyone's book, but with the last couple of weeks, she had gotten more practice up her sleeves.

"Only one person should go. This has been a busy night for Barry, so there could be somewhere else that he needs to go that may be a little more difficult," Cisco replied while continuing to stare at his screen. "This seems to be a simple robbery to stop. There's no civilians, and I haven't seen anyone besides the robbers in the area. I can't really tell too much because the security cameras are starting to go down for some reason, but at least it's not some big meta-human attack or anything." Barry seemed to go on every rescue mission, robbery, you name it. She wanted to help with the Team Flash duties for once.

"Bye then," she remarked as she prepared for her run.

Barry started to say, "I don't think that she shou—"

Wells cut him off by saying, "She should go on this mission alone this time. It would be a good learning experience." Wells smiled at her, winking, and the gesture was returned by Amara.

Though it was surprising he was on her side for a change, Amara shouted back, "Thanks, Wells!" Barry tried to protest, but she had exited STAR Labs before he could finish.

She zipped through the city streets until she made it to the bank. The security cameras were completely down in and out of the building by the time she arrived. The doors were not broken into, and there were no obvious points of entry. She stopped in front of the entrance and asked cautiously, "Is anyone in there?"

When she thought no civilians were inside, she burst through the doors and quickly looked around. She didn't see the thieves in the lobby, so she checked the bank vault. The thick metal door was open, but the money and deposit boxes were undisturbed.

_Why would someone break into a bank and not take anything?_

After a couple of moments of pondering the abnormalities in this bank robbery, she double-checked every deposit box with her super speed. When she had finished her run around the vault, she tried to take some deep breaths to restore her strength, but almost no air came into her lungs.

"Hey, Cisco," she called weakly on the coms. "Why is it . . ." she tried to take a breath again, "so hard to breathe in here?"

"What? Wait. Let me access the security cameras if they are still working." She waited for a moment for him to hack the cameras. "Yes! That's good for me. They're back on. Uh, there's a box that I can see in the room. Can you take a closer look at it?"

"Can't," she wheezed. She was now using the wall as a support. The air seemed to be leaving exponentially.

"Ok. I'm researching it now," he answered.

Before long, she was sitting on the ground, her back propped up against the wall. Her lungs ached from the strain. She hadn't renewed her oxygen after her run. Black spots began to dance in front of her eyes.

"Hurry, Cisco," she whispered.

He must have found something about the machine or its purpose because he came back on the coms. "I think it contains some kind of cobalt. It's a new wonder material that sucks out all the oxygen in its vicinity. You need to get out of there, Acceler8." Fear pranced on the edge of his voice. Part of his job was to be the anchor to calm. He seemed to be very worried this time.

"I'm . . . on my way." She stumbled forward a couple of steps.

"If you don't get out of there now," he spoke over the coms, "you won't have the strength to make it out at all. I'm going to send Barry, but he might not get there in time before you go unconscious."

"Don't . . . don't call Barry. I can . . . get out of this myself." she told him breathlessly. She wanted to prove that she could handle a simple robbery herself.

"Okay, but if you don't keep in touch with me on your way out, I'm going to call him, got it? I can't have you dying on me." He tried a chuckle to lighten the mood, but his nervousness betrayed him once again. She normally would have gotten angry at that comment at a time like this; however, she didn't have the strength to reprimand him.

She slowly headed for the large metal vault door which was her only exit. It was only a couple of feet away when it slammed shut from the other side. "No!" she tried to exclaim, but she didn't have enough air left. With the door closed, the remaining air in the vault was rapidly dissipating with her labored breaths.

Cisco began to speak. "Hey! I saw what just happened on the security cameras. Just stay with me until I get Barry!"

She couldn't hear Cisco call Barry to help. Her vision was fading into darkness. With her last remaining strength, she lifted her head to see the vault door open slowly. Amara couldn't gather any more strength to walk to the door. She lay on the ground, watching people in black body armor come into the bank vault with oxygen tanks. All of this had been set up as a trap to retrieve her.

"Here she is," one man stated as he reached down. They prepared to grab her and carry her out. She foolishly thought to herself, "I can do it. I have to prove myself to the team. I can do it." However, she knew she had nothing left in herself except exhaustion that swept through every part of her body. She closed her eyes. That was all she could remember before she ran out of air.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Where?

"Barry, Amara needs help at the bank!" Cisco shouted. He brought Barry's attention to his computer where Barry watched the security camera feed.

"I'm on it," Barry told Cisco as his arms pounded. Flash was already on his way to help Amara.

Cisco slowly remarked over the coms, "Okay . . . that was fast. Anyway, those people at the bank are wearing body armor, so you're going to need to think of some way to stop those guys without breaking your fist."

_They must be from the same group of people that attacked the police station._

Flash was running to save Amara who had gone on a mission . . . alone. She wasn't responding on the coms. Cisco had discovered that a special kind of cobalt material was absorbing the oxygen. On his run, Flash had an epiphany that made him realize that an oxygen drainer was _the_ ultimate weapon against a speedster. Since that weapon was in the wrong hands, they could take down any speedster as simply as they had defeated Amara.

Flash arrived at the bank. Nothing appeared to be wrong. He didn't see anyone inside, not even Amara.

He approached the bank with caution; even though no one appeared to be in it, there could still be other traps as awful as the cobalt material.

"I don't see her."

Cisco replied, "The cameras went down again. I'm locked out of the system. I think they're gone."

Flash had let yet another person in his life get hurt by the villains he faced.

Why did I let her go by herself?

He thought he had rescued her from Thunder Corps once and for all, but they just kept coming after her. Why did they want her so badly?

_Amara, I'm so sorry._


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The Immortal Griffin

She awoke on a table. It was cold, hard metal, lacking any sheets. First, she felt the cold of the metal table. After she opened her eyes, she realized she recognized the ceiling. She wished she had never seen it before. She wished she had been kidnapped by anyone but _him_. Why? Why would he not leave her alone? Why would he not allow her to live her life as a normal person?

She pulled against the chains bolting her arms, legs, and waist to the bed. An uncomfortable sense of vulnerability began to steal her away, making her tug more and more frantically on the chains. She had escaped once. Surely, she could do it again. She began vibrating her right arm to phase through the chains. She bit back a scream as lightning jumped to her arm, traveling up and making her heart skip a beat.

_The chains are made of the same metal as those bars in my old cell. Great._ Though she thought it was futile, she tugged at the chains once again. She was right. That didn't work.

"Hello, Eight." A deep voice came from behind what appeared to be a mirror, but Amara knew better.

"Griffin, can you _please_ stop calling me that? You should seriously know my real name by now." It seemed as though she had picked up some of Barry's spunky attitude. Finally, something good had come out of this day. "So, tell me. Why did you kidnap me _again_? Why can you just retire and grow a garden or something instead of raising your own perverted army?"

She got the usual feeling she did when she thought he smiled. "I believe you remember the day you left me. It seemed too good to be true that you just left on a mission and never came back without receiving any of the consequences, didn't it? You see, I _expected_ you would chicken out of the good cause, _expected_ that you would work on their team, _expected_ that they would trust you, _expected_ that you would learn the Flash's identity. I planned all of this, and you, my dear, are the Benedict Arnold of my plan. As you were having your little nap, I copied all your memories. The copies will be exported to the machine you helped me create. You. Are. Mine."

"B-but how did you know all of this? You can't possibly have predicted this exact outcome." Her voice became weaker. "You couldn't have."

"Oh, yes," he replied smugly. "Oh yes I did. I also discovered what Harrison Wells was planning, that he was going to purposefully make the particle accelerator explode. That the subsequent explosion would result in the creation of super-powered humans. That was how I knew to kidnap you and seven other, what is your Team Flash calling them? Oh, that's right. 'Metahumans.'

"I've always had a talent for predicting what is to come. Though not always accurate nor a soothsayer, I even predicted your powers and how to create some of the advanced technology we have here. The particle accelerator gave me powers that enhanced these abilities. This project, the one you stole technology for, will spare me from the degrading effects of my powers.

"Now bye-bye, Eight. Keep in mind: you belong to me."

"No!" she screamed. Too many questions whirled like hurricanes, everything a blur of anger, memories, pain, and confusion. She pulled against the chains more rigorously than ever, but a needle pressed into the side of her neck, unnoticed in her commotion. The serum made her heartbeat slow and her eyes close. Her shaking ceased, coupled with the conclusion of the clinks of the chains once the guards removed her and carried her away. A black suit with a thunder and lightning insignia gleamed in the sporadic swathes of light shining through dusty windows and the occasional missing piece of roof. She was Acceler8 no more.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

She's Back?

2 weeks later

Team Flash had been searching for Amara for weeks without any luck. Caitlin and Cisco kept saying, "Don't give up hope," and "We'll find her." Barry didn't believe either of them. They had checked Thunder Corps' old laboratory many times, but the site was void of people and objects except for small pieces of trash. Cisco had continually been monitoring the security cameras in Central City. Caitlin was scanning the web for any mention of her. No one had found anything that related to Amara Jones, Acceler8, or a woman matching her description.

Wells drove into the Cortex. "Have you found anything yet?"

Everyone turned to him, shook their heads, and returned to their screens. Everything had been so dull since she was kidnapped. Hardly anyone had spoken about anything except finding her. Barry didn't know what to do except go to work. Before he left, he heard quick footsteps in the hallway, but not nearly fast enough for a speedster. He prepared himself for a battle with a meta-human. Lightning surged around him as his anticipation to see the intruder grew. It wouldn't surprise him to see a meta-human walk right into STAR Labs without tipping off security; that seemed to happen all the time. When the intruder came around the corner, he recognized her. She wore a black spandex bodysuit with the Thunder Corps insignia and had dark skin and hair.

"Amara?"


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Discrepancies

"I ran here as fast as I could," Amara explained as she panted for breath. For some reason, she seemed out of shape and unnaturally slow. Her speed powers weren't working.

Barry ran to her and put his hand on her shoulder. His face showed that he was amazed and speechless by her surprise appearance. "How did you escape them?" he asked with a questioning look. His furrowed eyebrows and partly open mouth told her that he was worried about her.

"I woke up in a bed in Thunder Corps' med bay. My hair was soaked, but the liquid that saturated it wasn't water. I wasn't tied down or anything, and there were no guards, so I sneaked out and came here. You can tell that my hair is still wet from the experience." She paused to take a deep breath before I continued with, "I feel kind of strange though. I never thought that it took this much energy to run. I think Griffin took my speed."

"Let's get you checked out," Caitlin told her worriedly as she gestured to the med bay.

Barry looked flabbergasted. She wasn't sure why; she thought she was only gone for a few hours.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

Invisible Scars

Amara being back seemed too good to be true. Some aspects were different about her. She was eating less, and her eyes reacted extraordinarily to light. She had escaped too easily. The people at Thunder Corps were smarter than to just leave her unguarded. Maybe it was just because she was stationary for two weeks. They could have underestimated her. Still, something wasn't right.

"I ran some tests. . ." Caitlin trailed off and looked at Amara. They both seemed to be worried about something, but she didn't tell them what it was. "I have some concerns," she told them after slowly looking away from Amara.

"Spit it out," Wells commanded.

Barry shot him a cold glare as Caitlin announced, "Amara's scar from her bullet wound is gone. All of her physical acquired traits have vanished––no scars, no ear piercings, nothing. Amara," Caitlin began, "since your acquired traits are gone, you don't have your powers anymore either."

"What do you mean by that? Was the Speed Force drained from her?" Barry questioned as he stepped closer to her.

Barry thought, Amara looks like she's been shot by the news. Oh, that was a bad choice of words.

Caitlin took a deep breath and explained, "When I tested her on the treadmill, she was only able to run at the average human's speed: 12 miles per hour. That would partially explain why she was out of breath when she came here and why she has a small appetite."

"Partially?" Barry questioned.

Amara shook her head to say "no." For some reason, she didn't want Caitlin to answer him; although, he doubted that Caitlin would have told him anyway.

"What I don't understand is how your scar is also gone. Taking away your powers shouldn't affect any scars," Caitlin told them in a puzzled tone.

Wells added in a gruff voice, "Her scars don't matter. We need to focus on catching these people before they kidnap Allen too. Ramon, I want you to look for Thunder Corps. Let's find these villains before they cause any more harm to our speedsters."

Caitlin and Cisco obeyed Wells's orders and nodded tiredly. Cisco turned once again to his screen. Caitlin's sad gaze fell to Amara who was mourning the loss of her powers.

Wells headed out of the room with a determined expression on his face. He always seemed to leave whenever he wasn't needed. Still, Barry wondered where he disappeared to. Before he could attempt to follow Wells inconspicuously to find out what he was doing, a call came in on Cisco's computer, but what followed was no normal conversation.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

34.7° N, 33° E

_T__his can not be happening. I had my powers just a day ago, right? I remember passing out. Then, I was sitting in a chair, not even tied up. What happened to me? Does Griffin have my powers? If so, can I get them back?_

So many questions raced through Amara's head in just a few moments, though not at the speed she was used to. She hadn't realized how truly extraordinary her powers were until they were gone.

"Barry, there's a call coming in from an unknown source," Cisco announced to the group.

They turned to him to hear his revelation.

"Answer it. Maybe it's from Griffin," Barry told him optimistically. If it was Griffin, then they could possibly track his location.

"I can't answer it. The call is playing by itself," Cisco told them in a worried tone. He pushed a button which put the call on speaker. A gruff voice erupted from the speakers in the Cortex, one that sent chills down their spines.

"Hello, Flash. How is Amara doing? I heard about her past couple of incidents at the bank and in the parking lot outside. Maybe she needs some more training. Anyway, I'm sure you have recognized my voice by now based on our previous . . . debacles." Barry's hand tightened into a fist. "You want to get rid of me, don't you? Well, I want to get rid of you, just not yet. I only want a little race. Meet me at these coordinates: 34.7 degrees north, 33 degrees east. If you are thinking about not coming, Barry, then you can say goodbye to your girlfriend. If you refuse, she will be dead by morning." A dial tone was the only sound that was heard for a few moments. How did this man know their identities? Thoughts coursed through Amara's head about how Barry would respond to this man's demands. Caitlin couldn't take the evil of that man and walked out of the room.

Amara broke the silence by asking, "Who was that?"

Barry somberly glanced at her, then at Cisco.

Cisco answered for Barry in a quiet tone, "That was Reverse-Flash. His only desire in life is to make the Flash suffer. He murdered Barry's mother. He is willing to accomplish his goal by any means necessary, even if it means killing you."

She took a deep breath to comprehend the horrible news that Cisco had delivered. She had been kidnapped twice, shot once, presumed dead, become a superhero, then lost her powers, and got struck by lightning. Now a maniac was planning on killing her if Barry didn't walk into his trap. The superhero life definitely had its share of excitement. Still sitting up on the bed, she grabbed Barry's hand and told him, "Don't do this. You know his plan is for you to walk into his trap. This . . . Reverse-Flash will kill you if you go. You're needed more than me. I don't even have my powers anymore."

"Exactly. You don't have your powers, so you don't even stand a chance against Reverse-Flash. I have to go," he replied softly. "If I don't, you'll die, and we can't have that," he added with a weak smile. His words brought only sadness to her heart.

"Cisco, find out where those coordinates are."

"Barry—" he tried to say.

"Just do it! You know I have to do this. He murdered my mother!"

_So, Reverse-Flash was the man in the lightning._

Cisco reluctantly turned back to his computer. "Maybe you should talk to Wells about this. He is good at giving advice, you know."

As always, Wells rolled in at the right time.

"Did someone say my name?" he questioned.

Barry pointed at him and scowled. "Where were you? Reverse-Flash gave us a call. Maybe you could have helped us detect his location while the call was coming in. Maybe you could have helped us keep him from threatening Amara. Maybe you could have helped us stop Reverse-Flash once and for all, so he doesn't hurt any of our loved ones ever again!" Barry slammed his fists on the desk. He gave Wells one last angry glare before he turned and ran out of the room.

_What have I caused by coming back?_

"Barry! Ugh. Sometimes, that kid is just a real kid," Wells noted as he shook his head.

Curious about his disappearance at the time of the call, Amara asked him, "How did Reverse-Flash know that I returned, and why did you leave just before the call came in, Harrison Wells?" She pronounced his name with conviction. Wells's expression faltered for a moment. She continued, "What are you hiding?" If her years as a cop had taught her anything, it was that no one was trustworthy.

He pushed himself up in his wheelchair, probably to try to give himself a sense of superiority, and answered, "Reverse-Flash must have seen you return. About your question concerning me, I just got a bite to eat." After he finished that sentence, she thought she saw a flash of lightning. She looked around to see if there was a storm outside, but there were no windows to the outdoors in the Cortex. Maybe she had imagined it.

He revealed a Big Belly Burger bag from behind his back. "See? I got a cheeseburger," he announced as he held up the bag. "You know I have to eat, right?"

"I see . . ." she remarked slowly. She didn't trust Wells, not even a little bit. Something wasn't right with these inconsistencies. Wells eyed her for a moment longer, and then he returned to Cisco to see his progress. She was going to keep her eye on him.

Cisco was visibly worried by the call that had appeared earlier. His brow line was creased, and he was tapping his foot, signs that meant Cisco was worried. He said, "The location of the coordinates is Limassol, Cyprus. You know, it's kind of unusual for a bad guy to make us go halfway across the world." He turned away from his computer. "Wells, do you really think that Barry should do this? This is definitely a trap."

"If you want Amara to live, then Barry needs to do this. Reverse-Flash craves revenge against Barry Allen, and he will do anything to get it," Wells answered with a strange expression on his face. It looked something like pride.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

Burning Kole

"Amara Jones, the only speedster we had in our possession, is now somewhere else, am I right, Kole?"

He stuttered in fear of Griffin's disciplinary actions. "Uh . . . we . . . h-have not recovered her . . . but we have discovered t-that all of the test subjects have developed cancers."

Griffin pushed himself forward in his wheelchair and asked hoarsely, "Are the cancers curable?"

He finally stopped stuttering when he realized Griffin wasn't expressing his usual anger. He simply answered, "No."

"How long do the test subjects have?" His recent and rapid illness had resulted in forgetfulness and had reduced him to using a wheelchair. He was hoping to use the machine to become immortal. Since Eight had left, they had almost no way to know how long he would have if he used the machine for himself unless they used recon to periodically check her condition.

"The earliest test subjects only had a life span of ten minutes. We got the most recent test subject to have a projected life span of a few months," he answered obediently.

Griffin nodded his head in approval before a thought generated in his head.

Kole couldn't keep a simple girl in our grasp. If we eventually manage to capture the Flash, I won't be able to trust him.

Griffin beckoned a henchman over. Even though most of the people in Thunder Corps respected Griffin, there were some stragglers who foolishly refused to obey him. He had a few of his most trusted henchmen watch his back at all times for any possible assassins. He gestured to Kole with a nod of his head. One of the men lifted his eyebrows to ask an inaudible question. Griffin nodded which gave him no doubt whatsoever about what he was told to do. The henchman pulled out his plasma gun and aimed at Kole who Griffin's most trusted minion was once.

"Sir," Kole began nervously as he held up his hands like any pathetic coward who begged for mercy before his inevitable death. "P-please consider your most recent choices. I-I have a been loyal servant at Thunder Corps for—"

The hitman didn't let Kole finish his last pleading sentences. He could tell as well as Griffin that Kole was begging for mercy, which was a hopeless tactic against Griffin. The plasma gun left blinding light and a sizzling hole of smoking metal in its wake. Kole, the android Griffin had trusted for years, did not exist on Earth any longer.

A moment later, Griffin remembered that it was part of the plan that Eight would escape. He opened his mouth to speak to his hitmen, but coughs rattled his body. The men began to walk to him in the case of their boss needing assistance, but he waved them off. After a couple of minutes, the coughs ended, and he spoke, "Sorry, Kole. At least I can rebuild you," he whispered, "That is, if I have enough time left."


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Eavesdropping = Destruction

Barry knew he had to go to the location indicated by the coordinates. He stood outside the doorway of the Cortex to listen for them.

Barry was eavesdropping when Cisco announced, "The location of the coordinates is Limassol, Cyprus. It's kind of unusual for a bad guy to make us go halfway across the world." Cisco looked over at Wells and asked him, "Do you really think Barry should do this? This is definitely a trap."

"If you want Amara to live, then Barry needs to do this. Reverse-Flash craves revenge against Barry Allen and he will do anything to get it," Wells added.

Barry thought that what Wells stated only confirmed that he needed to go to Cyprus and stop Reverse-Flash for good. Barry sped out of the building and headed for a trap he thought would almost certainly be his own doom, but he had to do it to prevent someone else he cared about from getting killed.


	37. Chapter 37

Chapter 37

The Invincible Villain

Cisco and Wells left for some coffee at Jitters. Amara pushed herself up from the bed and headed for the bathroom. She didn't feel well. Even after that incident at the bank and quite a bit of time to lay down on the bed, her breathing was still labored. Halfway down the hall she began to stagger towards the restrooms. She set her hand against the wall and violently coughed. She drowsily pushed herself off the wall and continued to stumble toward the restrooms.

What is happening to me?

When she managed to get to the restroom, she had a coughing spasm. She leaned over the sink as she let out her coughs for at least a minute. Her chest beat against the sink, but her lungs ached more. Droplets of blood splattered the former cleanliness of the sink and mirror.

Was that blood mine?

She could taste blood on her tongue which sent her into heavier breathing. She gripped the sink with all her might; remaining standing was the only thought that kept her from passing out.

After about five minutes, she was able to let go of the sink. She felt extremely tired, but she managed to slowly and shakily head to the Cortex. Caitlin was working on something in the med bay.

Caitlin shot her a worried expression. "Are you okay? You look really pale."

Amara leaned against the desk in the Cortex and answered, "I don't think so." Her stressed breathing was making her feel dizzy again. Amara placed her other hand on the desk and leaned over it, putting almost all her weight into it. Then her arms became weak. As she fell forward, her head first hit the desk before it bounced backwards and hit the floor. She groggily looked around above her. The lights were blinding. Caitlin hurriedly ran over to kneel beside her.

"Amara! What is going on?"

Amara wasn't sure if she answered her or not. If she had, she couldn't hear or remember her own answer. Her eyes closed at some point, but she couldn't tell because her vision was already black.

"Are you alright, Amara?"

What happened?

The memories from before her blackout came back in her mind like a flood. She had coughed up blood; that was never good. Her labored breathing led to her blackout. She had gotten sick so quickly. It vaguely reminded her of the time she was infected by Pandemica.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Caitlin standing over her.

"Do you know what happened to you?"

While blinking her eyes to adjust to the lights, she groggily told her, "Yeah. I passed out."

"I mean, do you know why that happened?"

Amara shook her head. "I was coughing up blood, but—"

She appeared to be very concerned for Amara once she mentioned that. "You have hemoptysis?"

"What's that?" Amara's voice was hoarse, but her nervousness showed through.

"I mean, were you coughing up blood?" If Caitlin had to ask a second time to be sure she had heard Amara correctly, this was not good.

Amara nodded and rested her head on the pillow. She noticed her breathing was better now.

"Amara," she took a deep breath, "I did a full-body x-ray of you while you were unconscious. I was worried that Griffin did something to you." She tried to calm herself with another deep breath as her eyes watered. "That x-ray revealed that you have stage four metastatic lung cancer. It has spread to your liver and seems to be spreading to your heart. There may be some in the bones to, but I can't be sure without further testing––"

Amara's lips parted. Her heart beat even faster, if that was possible. Sweat gathered on her brow, on her hands, on the back of her neck. Her mind flickered through memories at astonishing speed. Family. Friends. Life without her for them. Again. Death? Already? Why? She was so young. Why? Why? Just . . . why?

"What?" was what came out of her mouth, the utterance of the word the only evidence of the turmoil raging inside her head.

Caitlin could barely meet her teary gaze. "I'm sorry you found out this way."

"What are my chances?"

She didn't speak.

"Answer me, Caitlin! I need to know."

"Z-zero. It's spread too far and has affected you too badly. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. It's not your fault. How long do I have?"

She hesitated again. Amara gave her a harsh but pleading glare. "Two months at least. Four at most."

There was silence again.

They didn't speak until Cisco and Wells came in. Caitlin stayed at her bedside in reticence.

"Guys," Cisco commented as he took a seat at his desk, "I have a feeling Barry knows the coordinates. I think he's headed there now."

"We need to get to Limassol," Wells declared. He narrowed his eyes, looked to Amara's bed, and inspected her. He understood something strange was going on, but he looked away to avoid being any more suspicious than he already was.

After a brief struggle, Amara pushed herself up and whispered to Caitlin, "I need to go to Limassol."

"You shouldn't—"

"Let me spend as much time as I can with Barry. Please." She understood that Amara wanted to spend her remaining time with the man she loved. Caitlin would have done the same with Ronnie if he was still alive. She nodded to show her understanding.

Amara checked on Cisco's progress. He had already purchased plane tickets. "Uh, Cisco," he turned around, and she continued, "We don't need four tickets."

"Why is that?" he asked a moment before he clicked the checkout button. "There's Caitlin, Wells, you, and me, so we need four.

"No. We need you to stay here for the technical," she gestured to the computer, "stuff."

He groaned. He loved dealing with the villains and going abroad whenever they got the rare chance. "Fine," he stated reluctantly.

"I'm coming to help you, Barry," she whispered even though he was probably on the other side of the planet by then. "Please just don't do anything stupid while I'm on my way."


	38. Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Where's the Fire?

3 hours later

Wells, Caitlin, and Amara were on a plane that was headed to Limassol. They had to get there before Barry got himself killed. The ride there was agonizing. Amara's nerves were fried by the time they arrived at the hotel room. Caitlin spoke to the anxious Team Flash when she announced, "Cisco is looking for any sign of him on the security cameras. Trust Cisco. He can find Barry."

Caitlin's phone began ringing from a sudden call. Caitlin crossed the room to her nightstand and lifted the phone to her ear in haste. "Hello, Cisco." She paused as she listened to the information, then added, "—is where Barry is," to Cisco's sentence. "Thanks," she replied as she hung up the phone.

"We know where Barry might be," she informed Amara. "Cisco thinks that he is already at the Sunrise Beach Hotel." After that call, they headed out to the hotel. When they reached the bottom floor of their building, they tried hailing a taxi.

Amara could imagine Cisco saying, "Let's just say that was a _taxi_ng experience."

"Where's Wells?" Amara asked as a taxi finally pulled up. He had gotten a separate, more private hotel room, and Caitlin and Amara hadn't seen him since.

"I have no idea. Maybe he left to get a Big Belly Burger again!" Caitlin replied with a funky smile.

They shared a good laugh and continued making jokes about Wells and his cheeseburgers.

"There was one time when Wells—"

Caitlin continued speaking, but Amara lost all interest when she thought that she saw a red flash of lightning alongside their taxi. It wasn't storming outside. It reminded her of the lightning trails of a speedster. She pondered the strange phenomenon for the rest of the ride. The same had happened when Wells offered his excuse at STAR Labs when he presented his Big Belly Burger.

Once they arrived at Barry's location, they saw flashes of yellow lightning, ice, and fire. A crowd of people gathered at the foot of the building that was occupied by a superhero, villains, and innocent people.

"Stop here!" Amara yelled at the taxi driver as she practically leaped out of the moving vehicle. She used the side of the taxi to push off for a sprint but only proceeded a few steps before Caitlin grabbed her arm.

"Are you crazy? There are at least two villains in there! You don't have your powers. If you go in there, you'll get killed."

"What was the purpose of coming here if we can't even help Barry? I'm going to die anyway."

"Don't think that way! There's still a chance."

"You said it yourself. The chance is zero for me."

Caitlin hesitated. "Maybe we'll be able to talk him out of fighting Reverse-Flash, but not right now. He has other villains to deal with."

There was an abnormal aroma surrounding the building that was beginning to drift through the city. "Do you smell smoke?" Amara asked. They looked to the building to see fire erupting from the rooms that housed families who had come for vacation. Denizens of Limassol gasped as they saw the flames. Captain Cold and Heatwave ran out covering their mouths with their sleeves. Heatwave' flame gun was missing. Barry was not visible. Amara ran forward, but Caitlin continued holding her arm. She could see the worry in Caitlin's eyes as she glanced between the building and her.

"Real heroes don't have superpowers," she stated flatly as she answered her silent question: "What will you do without your powers?"

Caitlin reluctantly let go of her arm, and Amara ran to save Barry. Her lungs ached even though she had only run to the entrance. As she approached the ediface, she could feel that the heat was very intense, even from far away. She had to push herself toward the building. No sirens could be heard. No one was brave enough to stop her. There was no turning back.

Her eyes stung from the smoke, and it was hard to breath, but she continued her search for Barry. The once elaborate entrance to the building was now burnt and smeared with smoke along its walls. Small trees that grew from large pots were turning into ash. She hated seeing the devastation in front of her from what used to be someplace beautiful.

"Barry? Where are you?" she called between coughing fits.

In between the blasts of fire and wisps of smoke, she spotted a blur carrying people out of the building.

"Is that you, Barry?" she asked with a strained voice.

Once he dropped everyone off outside the building, Barry came back inside and answered, "Yeah, it's me. Amara, why are you in here?"

"I came in here to help, and since you're fine, I'll try to find civilians." She coughed violently, and he shot her a worried gaze.

"I need to get you out of here." He prepared to pick her up.

"No. There could be other people in the building who need to be saved. I need to do this."

He didn't like the idea of her staying in the burning building. "You don't have your powers. If you stay in here too long, the smoke will be too much for you."

"Please."

He began to understand that this was something she needed to do. "Fine." Still, his eyes showed that he was worried for her.

He was reluctant to let her stay, but he made a deal with her: she could stay in the building to help for a few more minutes, then he would run her out. He checked one more time to make sure that she was okay, then he ran off into the building to check for more civilians.

Her eyes stung so badly from the heat that it was hard to see. The smoke burned in her lungs. It was already hard to breathe with the lung cancer. At one point she coughed so hard that she almost collapsed. She knew she had to continue even though she could hardly walk with the coughing spasms. Someone could be experiencing the same symptoms as her. If she could keep going forward, she would.

She took one step at a time to avoid passing out before she could do any good. When she approached what remained of a bed, she could hear crying. She stumbled closer and peered underneath the bed. There was a girl who appeared to be about five years old. Tears ran down her soot-covered face. She looked up at Amara and stated in a soft, innocent voice, "I'm scared."

Her heart broke at the sight of this girl. Captain Cold and Heatwave had caused this and hadn't even bothered to help stop it. Amara also understood how this little girl felt; she had been scared for Barry earlier.

"Don't worry. I'm going to get you out of here," Amara reassured her while holding out her hand.

She hesitated, then grabbed a small action figure that had been hiding behind her. It was a Flash figure. That made Amara smile in hope of the children of this generation. They cared about heroes. They wanted the world to become better. They needed people like this child to change the world.

The girl pulled back for a moment and looked around in fear of the flames. She whimpered and crawled out from underneath the bed. Amara grabbed her and held her close to herself as though the girl were her own child. She tried not to think about how she would never have a child of her own.

Amara slowly stood up and staggered to the exit with labored breaths and pained lungs. She felt as though she was going to pass out at any moment. The girl seemed to be getting heavier and heavier and the exit farther and farther. Her foot caught a stray piece of fallen wood. After catching herself before she fell into a patch of flames, she was nearly crushed by a section of ceiling that fell only a few feet in front of her. The girl buried her head in Amara's hair and began sobbing more intensely. Finally, Amara reached the exit and breathed a sigh of relief of what air she had left in herself. Barry had just finished dropping off some civilians when she was about to set down the child. The sound of shattering wood erupted above, causing her to look up. The child lifted her head enough to see the scene unfold. The ceiling caved in before her but on a much larger scale than before. Burning splinters of wood shot through the air like scalding bullets. Amara recoiled and shielded the girl from the flames and the wood with her back. She could feel the searing heat on her back which was sure to leave a scar. The splinters shot into her backside, causing her to feel as though she had fallen into a burning bramble bush. A small hole in the debris with a miniscule diameter let rays of light shine through the smoke in the air. Barry stood on the other side, his face covered with nothing but fear.

"Amara!"

"I'm okay. The girl is too," she told him hoarsely. She handed the weeping girl to Barry. There wasn't enough room for her to fit through the opening. Barry's eyes were pleading that she discover a way to escape.

"I'll find some way," he promised, his eyes watering. Was it from the smoke or something deeper?

"No," she told him sternly, "you need to help her first." She gestured to the sobbing girl in his arms and prayed she would be okay.

He held out his free hand and took hers. "Goodbye, Barry," Amara whispered to him. She let go of his hand, her fingers seeming to slide past his much too quickly, and backed away. The debris above the opening crashed down, sealing the only exit near her. She couldn't see Barry's face through the ashes and debris. She stumbled back down the hallway, hoping that she would be able to make it back to the main entrance. The heat was so intense she could hardly focus. When she got to the hallway leading to the entrance, her hope dwindled. There were flames devouring the hallway, preventing anyone from passing through the entrance. She wanted to sink to the floor, to sleep, to do anything but have this labor of breathing thrusted upon her shoulders.

"I'll only rest for a moment," she told herself.

She began to sink to the floor. She set her hand against the wall but quickly jerked it away when the heat seared her hand. She forced herself to stand up. She couldn't let the heat get to her or she would never make it out of the hotel alive. She pushed her right foot forward, then the left over and over as she made her way back down the hallway. The sound of crackling flames, screams, and falling parts of the building resounded through the hallways. She heard cries, but she couldn't reach them in time. Even if she had, she wouldn't have been able to get them to an exit, for there were none left.

After walking for as long as she could she reached a room that wasn't on fire and walked inside. Dropping to the bed, she wanted to sob for the people who had screamed and cried for help. She couldn't help them. She was too slow. What was she even thinking when she walked into a burning building with no powers and no Kevlar?

I'm not a hero. I'm the person who worked for an evil man. I stole to stay alive. Why did I ever think I could be a hero? she wondered.

She tried to take the deepest breaths possible to avoid passing out, though she felt so horrible she thought it would serve her right if she died in the fire. She would have wept had she possessed enough air. By entering the building, thinking she could do something, she had only delayed Barry from saving everyone.

_What have I done? _

A moment later, she could see a red flash of lightning, or was it just her imagination again? The lightning abruptly stopped in front of her. There was a man in a yellow suit. The colors were the same as Barry's on his suit, but they were inverted. Amara knew he must be Reverse-Flash, unless her lack of decent oxygen was making her hallucinate.

She spoke in such a hoarse whisper she would have been amazed if Reverse-Flash even knew she had spoken. "Hey. What's up?"

"Hello, Ms. Jones. Prepare to d––"

"––die, I know. Can you please save me the melodrama and kill me already? Otherwise, the smoke inhalation will do it for you." She felt very pessimistic. This man was using too many clichés for her liking. She had always hoped her death would be glorious and poetic, not done by a psychopathic speedster who seemed to have grown up on creepy comic books.

Reverse-Flash was practically adopting the attitude of a rabies-infected animal because she wasn't taking him seriously enough.

"I always hated you," he remarked menacingly.

"I'm not sure who you are, or how you always hated me, but I'm not liking you either." Her voice was becoming raspier. Soon she would not be able to speak.

Before Amara could move, Reverse-Flash grabbed her by the throat and lifted her from the ground. She gasped for air, more than she was already was, and clawed at his hands. The effort didn't accomplish anything except make her run out of air faster.

"I was surprised when you came to STAR Labs the first time. In case you didn't figure it out, I'm from the future. I didn't remember you or the fact that you even existed. I thought that you might threaten my plans. I've discovered that you only enhanced them! When Barry brought you in after you were shot on in the STAR Labs parking lot that night, I realized that I had to keep you alive. You were actually the key to helping me succeed."

Did I endanger all my friends by staying at STAR Labs? What have I done?

"I might as well finish explaining everything since you are going to die soon. I don't get to talk about my plans with anyone except Gideon. Let's just say she's not the most . . . outgoing companion."

Why do villains have to torture people with monologues before they kill their victims? Amara wondered.

She tried to escape and keep him from harming Barry in any way ever again. She scratched at his hands again, but it still didn't accomplish anything. Her vision was getting darker. After a few moments she wouldn't be able to defend herself at all.

"If you're wondering "Why Limassol?", it's where Captain Cold and Heatwave were staging their latest heist. I encouraged them to work for me for some money.

"I've been striving to torment the Flash in any way possible. Now, I have found something better than ending his life: I can end yours. He will be torn apart by your loss. Too bad you won't be able to say goodbye to him," he announced as he began to vibrate his hand. Her vision was almost completely black at that point. She could hardly hear what he was saying. She put her remaining strength into one last struggle. She clawed with all her might. She kicked her legs frantically. The man seemed to be too bent on her death to allow scratches and bruises to stop him.

_Goodbye, Barry._

Reverse-Flash was about to plunge his hand into her heart but stopped a couple of inches above her chest. "You know what," he spoke slowly, "You're having a demanding time breathing . . ." He dropped her to the ground where she coughed violently.

Her mind screamed, _"Get out! You need to get out of there!"_ She couldn't move. She was too weak.

"Maybe I should just let you suffocate," he told her matter-of-factly. "That will be much more satisfying to watch," he grinned in a way that made him look like the homicidal maniac he was. "Here's a little something for you before you die: Did you know that there is no mention of you alongside superheroes? No one remembers you." He paused a moment before saying, "You don't matter."

No retort could leave her lips.

He sneered. "You'll be seeing Allen soon enough. Goodbye, Miss Jones. I'll be looking forward to his reaction when he blames himself for this."

"Leave Barry alone," she tried to utter. Still, no words.

"This is my destiny; yours is to die today." He sat on the bed to await her death.

All her thoughts were trained on Barry: how she would never see him again, what his reaction would be when he found her on the ground, dead, that she would never give him a proper goodbye. This time tears leaked from her eyes from something besides the smoke. She didn't care about what happened to her. She only wanted to protect the love of her life to her last breath, something she knew would never happen.


	39. Chapter 39

Chapter 39

Breathless

After Barry delivered the young girl to the firefighters, he heard a man's voice behind him say, "She's dead, Barry, and there's nothing you can do about it. What a hero you are."

He whipped his head around. All he could see was a red flash of lightning. That was all he needed to see. Using his arms to create wind funnels, he sucked the oxygen out of the air to stop the fire at the main entrance. He had not been able to stop the entire fire that way; the blaze was too large. When the fire was controlled, he raced down the hallways to commence his search for her.

"Amara! Please answer me! Where are you?"

He raced into one room where he spotted someone on the ground. He knelt beside her. She was sprawled along the ground with her eyes closed. Bruises lined her neck. This was too similar to CCPD investigations. This hit far too close to home. Amara's lidded eyes faced the ceiling, her face looking pained from her last moments.

"No!"

Another part of his mind held hope, but it diminished with every passing second he wasted kneeling beside her. "No. No, no, no, no.

He began to pick her up. Her body was too limp. He checked for a pulse.

Nothing.

"Please speak to me," he whispered. Emotions were his words, regrets his tears. Tears in his eyes as the horrible truth sank in.

_I let the woman I love die._

He held her in his arms and sat there for a few moments as he thought about the time he had with her. So many regrets fluttered through his mind. _He_ had let her stay inside the building. _He_ had left her inside with the flames while he stayed and informed the firefighters outside.

When he couldn't bear any more regret, he slowly carried her outside. Caitlin ran to him as he came out of the building. When she saw Amara, she stopped. She looked like she was about to ask, "What happened?", but as soon as she got closer, she saw for herself. Her hands flew to her mouth. Sirens screamed, mourned for the dead around them, but he didn't pay attention. Why had they been so late? If they had only come sooner . . .

"Barry, oh, I'm so sorry," she whispered with tears gathering in her eyes.

Barry grabbed Caitlin. She yelped in surprise, and Barry headed back to Central City. He left the building to the firefighters in his rush to leave. He assumed his ability to \ carry two people at once with ease was because of the excessive amount of adrenaline in him at the moment.

What about Wells? he thought as he ran. A part of him reminded himself, Wells didn't bother to come to the fire. He can find his own way home.

Barry pushed himself faster as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The water sprayed around him. A dolphin broke through the surface of the water nearby. The sun overhead casted shimmers across the water. He was oblivious to the beauty.

He sprinted through cities, forests, and mountains before he finally reached Central City. He raced inside STAR Labs and stopped in front of the desk, setting Caitlin down. This reminded him too much of the time Amara had been shot.

Cisco practically jumped out of his chair when Flash stopped in the lab. "Barry! What did I tell you about running in here like—" His gaze fell to Barry's arms where he held Amara. Her dark skin was abnormally pale. Cisco made no motion. All he did was stare at her limp body in Barry's arms in shock.

Urgency came into Barry's voice when he demanded, "Help her!" Caitlin and he shared a sad glance that spoke a thousand words. They thought that she was already too far gone.

Still, after Barry set Amara on the bed Caitlin hurriedly prepared the heart monitor and broke out the paddles while Cisco carried out CPR. "Cisco," Caitlin demanded, "get an oxygen mask. It must have been smoke inhalation that did this to her." He obediently grabbed the mask and began to hook her up to an oxygen tank. Barry felt useless as he stood to the side of Amara's bed.

"Clear!" Caitlin announced as she activated the paddles. Amara's body jerked with the surge of electricity. There was no heartbeat.

"Please come back to me, Amara," he muttered. His forehead ran with creases and dripped with sweat. He held his hands together, praying with everything he had in him for her recovery. This marked too many times people had to use paddles on Amara.

"Clear!" Caitlin announced. Amara jerked upwards again and fell back down. There was still no heartbeat on the monitor.

Cisco resumed the CPR. Amara became more pale and cold by every passing moment. After a couple minutes with no heartbeat, Caitlin put the paddles away. Cisco ended CPR.

"Time of death: 1:27 P.M."

A tear finally trickled down Barry's face. Amara was gone. He was left with a feeling of overwhelming emptiness without her in his life. She wouldn't be at Jitters anymore to get coffee. She wouldn't be by his side as they stopped villains. There would be no more teaching her abilities she could use to stop criminals. Her gorgeous face would never be seen alive and healthy again. He couldn't do anything to save her. He was too late.

The Flash was too slow.


	40. Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Solace

1 week later

"Hey, Bar."

Barry ignored Joe and continued working on the blood sample in the forensics lab.

Joe added as he leaned against a desk, "I've noticed that you haven't been yourself lately."

Barry set down the blood sample. "I don't want to talk about it." He used his super speed to stir chemicals together, set them down on a tray made to hold them, and picked up the blood sample again.

"I know you loved her."

Barry stopped what he was doing and exclaimed, "I already told you I don't want to talk about it!" He slammed down the sample on the table, shattering it and spilling its contents onto the floor and table.

"I'll get it," Joe replied as he headed toward the broom propped up in a corner of the lab.

"This is the third time you've broken something in the lab this week," Joe reminded his adopted son as he swept up the glass. Barry took the broom from him and finished cleaning up the mess.

"I did love her. I could have saved her. I was too slow to save her, my mom, anyone. Even with my speed I can't save the people I love." He leaned against the table, his face down toward the sample tray.

Joe sat down next to him and replied, "I've had partners I couldn't save, Barry. We've both had people we've lost. Loss is just a part of life, but people can still gain from the losses. You said that Amara died while saving a child, am I right?"

"Yeah."

"We both knew that her goal in life was to save at least one person in some way. She had that saying, 'If I can change at least one person's life for the better—'

"'—I must take that chance. That is what matters,'" Barry finished. He just hoped that Amara didn't go through too much pain before she . . . before she died.

Later that day Barry made himself come back to STAR Labs. He had been avoiding it ever since Amara died, but after Joe's speech, he had gathered the courage to come.

He shut his eyes at the sight of the Cortex. He couldn't let himself feel the pain. Rending himself away from his thoughts of her, he headed to the Cortex. Everyone stopped their work to look at him. They seemed surprised that he had come.

"I know what you're going through, man. If you need any help—" Cisco set his hand on Barry's shoulder. Barry brushed it off.

"I'm just here because I thought I should ask if you needed any help with taking down some villains. Do you? Need help I mean?"

"At least we know that Barry is at least halfway back to normal!" Cisco exclaimed as he looked around for support. Caitlin, the only other person in the Cortex, didn't smile at his comment. They were still too stunned that Barry had made an appearance and had asked if they needed help.

"There haven't been any pings recently, so until we get one, you can leave or just hang." Cisco leaned back in his chair.

"Can . . . can you tell me what happened to Amara from what you could find?" Barry wanted to make sure that she didn't suffer in her last moments.

Caitlin sadly responded, "Are you sure that you want to know? Like the saying goes, 'Some things are better off unsaid.'"

"Yeah. She had to go through it firsthand. I think I should have to go through it too. In a relationship, the couple has to go through everything together." He looked at the empty bed in the med bay. Only days ago, he had attended her funeral. Even if she hadn't been his girlfriend, she would have been close to him on Team Flash. The people he met always held a special place in his heart, and playing a part in losing Amara made it even worse.

Caitlin held out a paper listing her injuries and cause of death from an informal examination. He took it with unsteady hands and turned around to read it over. His eyes ran to the part that listed her injuries:

"Victim suffered third-degree burns on back. Splinters, possibly from fallen wood, scatter backside. Bruises on neck indicate that victim was strangled by someone very strong, likely a male, and suggests victim was held in the air while being strangled. Cause of death appears to be from smoke inhalation and/or suffocation.

He reread the part that said, "Bruises on neck indicate that victim was strangled by someone very strong, likely a male and suggests victim was held in the air while being strangled." Who would have done such a thing? If she was trying to save people, _why_ would someone strangle her?

_Unless . . . unless it was Reverse-Flash._

He had to be certain.

"Caitlin," he began hesitantly while his gaze remained on the paper, "who would have strangled Amara?"

"That abnormality puzzled me too. I still don't know how to explain it." She shrugged.

Wells entered and spoke. "What are you all debating now?"

Barry looked up from the paper. "We don't understand who would have strangled Amara."

"Ah, I see," he responded. "Maybe it was one of the two rogues, Leonard Snart and Mick Rory."

"They had already left the building at that point," Barry pointed out. Seconds later, he added, "Also, how do you know they were there? Caitlin told me you were nowhere to be found during the incident. Where were you?" Barry narrowed his eyes.

Wells tilted his head. "There was a large building fire in a foreign country with criminals from ours. Don't you think that the events and the individuals who caused it would be on the news?" He chuckled for a moment. "Use that big brain of yours, Allen." He began to turn his wheelchair around.

"You didn't answer my other question, Wells," Barry remarked.

Wells halted and spoke over his shoulder, "Does it matter? Miss Jones is already dead, and it was smoke inhalation that killed her, not that man. Move on." He drove away even though he had only just entered the Cortex a minute ago.

"Bye, guys," Barry announced.

"Wait, Barry." Caitlin grabbed his shoulder before he could run. "I need to talk to you. Come with me."

_Well this is strange._

Still, he followed her to the hallway. Cisco tried to "secretly" listen to the conversation by leaning on the doorframe. Caitlin and Barry solved this problem by moving further down the hallway to where Cisco couldn't hide.

"All right, Barry. I thought I wouldn't have to tell you this for a few months, but––"

"You're pregnant?" This was the first happy moment Barry had had in days. He eyed her stomach, thinking about who the father could be.

"No! I'm not pregnant!"

An audible sigh emitted from Cisco from inside the Cortex. "Then what is it, Caitlin?" Barry asked as his spirits dropped. What kind of news was this? He now realized how sad her eyes appeared.

"It's about Amara." Barry felt more depressed than ever. What was it now? "Don't be mad at yourself that she died. It was good that she went out this way. Better than . . ." Caitlin was suppressing sniffles. "She . . . she had cancer, Barry. Incurable. Stage four lung cancer. She would have . . . she would have died in a couple months anyway. At least she went out a hero." Barry had never seen Caitlin cry. He understood that she and Amara understood one another and could have become super friends had they the time.

It took a moment for it to click. Amara had cancer. She never told him. She went and stayed inside of that building because she was following her saying: "If I can change at least one person's life for the better, I must take that chance. That is what matters."

_Why did she have to follow her words? Why did she have to die? _

"She didn't want to have to tell you. She couldn't bear the thought of never seeing you again. She loved you too much." Caitlin set her hand on his shoulder like so many people had done after he had lost someone. This time, he let her hand stay.

"Thanks, Caitlin. I'm gonna leave, so . . . bye." With that he left in a flash.

Barry went through any streets that held special memories, which was a lot. Being the Flash makes one have to visit almost every street in the city at least once. A memory of Amara surfaced in his mind.

"Do you ever plan to get back with Iris?" Amara had asked him with a distant worried expression on her face.

Barry took a deep breath; he had been thinking of Iris recently. He was hoping they wouldn't have to bring that up because of the awkwardness it instilled, but he knew that it was something they would have to talk about at some point. "I _was_ pretty obsessed with Iris before, but that was before I met you and realized how great you are." He looked back up to her. She was smiling, and so was he. "I'm planning on staying here, with you," He answered her solemnly. He took her hands in his and added, "Iris moved on without me. Maybe now I should consider a future with you in it." He leaned across the table and gave her a quick kiss.

"I know you're a speedster, but you kiss way too fast!" she whispered loudly enough for only Barry to hear. "You owe me a better kiss."

His mind returned to the present. He needed some good counseling and not just the kind where someone tells you "It's going to be okay." He moved on from Jitters and ran hundreds of miles to see someone he knew could help him with Amara's loss. He had been Barry's friend for a long time and even helped encourage him to be a superhero.

"Oliver," Barry stated after he knocked out one of Oliver's assailants. With no more enemies around, he loosened his grip on his bow and slid the arrow back into his quiver. He was surprised Barry had showed up unannounced but was prepared to talk.

"Barry. This is a surprise. Why are you here?"

"I've gotta talk to you about something."

Oliver glanced around before adding, "Let's g—"

Barry grabbed Oliver in his urgency and brought Oliver to his lair. Oliver looked around, startled, but adjusted to the change in scenery within seconds.

"Good thing John Diggle wasn't with me this time," Oliver remarked. "What's so serious you had to interrupt that?" Oliver seemed to be slightly annoyed Barry had finished off his assailants for him.

Barry spoke in superspeed, "We got a call from Reverse-Flash that I needed to go to Limassol to keep him from killing Amara, so I went there and fought Captain Cold and Heatwave even though I knew it was a trap, but I knew I had to go, then Heatwave set the building on fire, so I tried to get everyone out, then Amara went in to help me, but she didn't have her powers, then I let her stay in there to look for people to save, then—"

Oliver held up his hands and told Barry, "No more speed talking. Slow down. _Slowly,_ tell me what happened."

"Amara went into the building to try to help me. When she found out I was okay, she wanted to try to help people inside the building. I let her stay for a couple of minutes. She saved a little girl, but a piece of the building fell that blocked the exit. She handed the girl to me, but Amara couldn't fit through the small hole in the debris. She went deeper into the building to try to find another way out while I delivered the girl to the firefighters. When I went back inside to look for Amara, I found her, but she . . . Reverse-Flash killed . . ." Barry couldn't get himself to finish that sentence. Oliver understood.

Oliver spoke quietly, "Obviously you loved Amara. I met her once; she seemed really great, but think. She really loved you. I could see it. Do you think that Amara would have you act like this about someone else if she was still around? It's okay to be sad about losing someone you love; I completely understand, but you can't have all your thoughts directed on what you could, or would, or should have done. Those thoughts will plague you and drive you insane. You need to move past and _forget_ what happened because there's nothing you can do now."

"Yeah," he answered, nodding slowly. "Thanks, Oliver," Barry told him before leaving a tornado of papers in his wake of sudden speed. He finally knew how to let her go.

**A/N: For readers of my Dragon Age stories, you were probably rolling your eyes at the title of this chapter. (You just knew I had to put Solas in here somewhere!) If not, oh well. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, let's just reflect over Oliver Queen's cameo. Isn't he amazing? Enjoy your reading! :)**


	41. Chapter 41

Chapter 41

Flash Forward

2018

And so, Team Flash lived their lives. They took down villains like Savitar, Zoom, the Thinker, and even Harrison Wells who they discovered was Reverse-Flash. Barry freed his dad from prison only for him to get killed by Zoom. Barry created Flashpoint, an alternate timeline in which his mother and father were alive, which changed his friends' lives for the worse. Cisco's brother was killed as a result of Flashpoint, and Iris's death was averted due to the heroic deeds of H.R., a Harrison Wells from a distant Earth. Barry got married to Iris in a situation that involved Earth-X, aliens, and time traveling legends.

New members had joined Team Flash including Ralph Dibny, D.A. Cecile Horton, and another Harrison Wells from another Earth.

It appeared to be a typical day at STAR Labs––Cisco received a ping on his computer, and Barry hurried to check it out. Ralph, Joe, and Iris were also present, but Barry thought it was easy enough for him to investigate the report by himself. After a brief explanation from Cisco, Barry learned the ping had come from a 911 call that was listed in the police category of attention. A few renegade teenagers had called in to report rapid gunfire from a seemingly abandoned warehouse. Barry was gone before anyone could say another word.

The warehouse was located on the outskirts of Central City. It was a stereotypical warehouse with dusty and broken windows and rusted doors marked with "keep out" signs. The pavement in front was lined with cracks growing grass and weeds. Rusted, barbed wire fences enclosed the warehouse and the surrounding overgrown field. Military-like vehicles covered with tarps lay in wait near all of the exits. Though the gates to the warehouse were closed, Flash did not find that a problem. He walked through the fence, vibrating at superspeed through it. He noticed shortly after that there was a small hole dug near the bottom of the fence with some of the wire cut above it. Wire cutters which likely belonged to the teenagers rested on the ground inside the fence line. The Flash bolted toward a broken window to investigate the situation. He heard no sounds of gunfire and began to wonder if this was some cruel trap a villain had set up for him.

The warehouse was only lit by natural light coming in from the broken windows, as the rest of the windows were too dust-covered for much light to shine through. From what he could see, however, there were hundreds of bodies on the ground. They were all dressed in black, bulletproof body armor. At least, they had been bulletproof, before hundreds of bullets were shot into them. The few streams of light from the broken windows reflected off pools of blood. Flash stepped back in horror. "Cisco," he turned around and spoke quietly, not wanting to look at the carnage any longer, "I'm at the warehouse."

Cisco responded, "Did you find anything out of the ordinary?"

"Yeah. The police are on their way, right?"

"You should hear their sirens right about . . . now."

Wailing police sirens were right on cue. When the cars turned into the drive in front of the gate, Barry saw there were not enough. "I'll need you to send more. A lot more. And we'll need every ambulance they have."

"Whoa. What happened there?"

"A massacre."

"What the heck happened here?" Singh repeated for the eighth time. Every ambulance had been sent to the warehouse, along with half the CCPD and every forensic scientist. That included Barry Allen, who, for once, showed up on time. He claimed he had been in the area.

Barry was currently trying to figure out exactly what had happened inside the warehouse by investigating the positions of the deceased. Witnessing autopsies did not prepare him to see this many dead people. It was too much. Still, he had done his work. He had come up with a theory. It seemed to fit. "Captain Singh," Barry said to him, "I think I know what happened here."

Singh turned away from an angry conversation with a medical examiner from the morgue. "Well, what is it?" The medical examiner turned away and stormed off with a flick of her short, abnormally blond hair.

"Let's go, Ravi," she told her partner. He began to protest before she nearly dragged him to his car before turning to her own.

Barry finally spoke once the medical examiners had left. "I'm pretty sure there was something of a civil war inside that building. I don't know why they all killed each other, but I do know who these people are, or at least who they work for."

"And who would that be?" Singh asked, intrigued.

"These people are part of an organization that works for a man named Griffin."

"How do you know this?"

"I . . . knew someone who was a part of this organization."

"And where is this person now?"

Barry paused. He didn't want to admit it to Singh. To admit it would mean it was true. Well, it already was. He needed to be honest with Singh, and with himself. "She's dea––"

"We have a survivor!" A police officer shouted from the warehouse. Singh, Barry, a few officers, and some EMTs sprinted to the warehouse but quickly slowed once they approached the crime scene. The EMTs and the officers nearly doubled over and vomited over after laying eyes on the scene.

"Don't contaminate the evidence," Singh commanded. He stepped over the blood on the floor, and his only concern was not disturbing it. He did not appear to be disgusted in the least. The officer who had announced the survivor's presence pulled a flashlight from his belt and shone its light into the center of the warehouse. The light continued, unobstructed, until it went through three tanks in a light where afterwards was dimmer. A cylindrical tank was in the center of the warehouse. A half-dozen similar tanks surrounded that one. Through the tank in front of the central one, the officer and EMTs could see a woman floating inside, though the image was distorted. The liquid inside the central tank diminished more each second from the bullet holes in the sides of the tank. The six others were nearly emptied of their liquid of thick consistency. They had shielded the central container from nearly every bullet.

The officers and EMTs quickly averted their gaze as soon as they realized the woman inside the tank was not clothed.

"Um, Carson," Singh spoke to the original officer in the warehouse, "can you please get the female officers and EMTs to get her out of here?"

"Yes, Singh," the man answered before hurrying off.

Barry knelt to inspect a metal insignia pinned to a suit on a nearby body. It was engraved with the same cloud and thunder bolt that Amara had worn. Barry's throat suddenly went dry as he stared at the engraving. Flames danced before his eyes, and he imagined Amara scratching at Reverse-Flash's hand holding her up, choking her. Reverse-Flash laughed as he slowly killed her. Barry stood outside, somehow able to watch but not able to come. A hand was set on his shoulder.

"Allen. You okay?" Singh looked down at Barry who was in a cold sweat. The dead body was once again in his sight, and the hallucination of Amara faded away.

"Yeah," he answered, standing up. "I'm fine."

"Crime scenes like this really get to people. If you need to leave––"

"I'm fine, Singh," Barry interrupted with a firm voice.

They headed outside as women came in to deal with the woman in the tank. The metal door slammed behind Barry, and he hoped to never set foot inside that warehouse again.

"You won't believe who they found in that tank. She's in the hospital right now."

"Who was it?" Barry asked a new CSI, suddenly intrigued. He pulled himself away from his microscope to listen to the CSI.

"It's this chick who used to work for the CCPD before she died. Twice. That's what I heard anyway. I just moved to this city, and I've already seen some strange things. I'm pretty sure I saw the Flash the other day! Hey! Where are you going?" The CSI turned around in his chair to watch Barry jog away. Barry came back around the doorframe only to tell the CSI, "Sorry. Something came up," before running away, though he was careful not to use his superspeed.

Was the girl in the hospital Amara? Who else could it be? Amara had seemed to die twice. It was possible. She had worked for Griffin. Maybe he revived her in some way. Still, Barry couldn't allow himself to be too hopeful. Once outside the CCPD, he accelerated to his inhuman speeds. All his thoughts were on Amara. He was married to Iris now, and he loved Iris with his whole heart, but it would be incredible to find that Amara was alive somehow.

Barry stopped running in an alley near the hospital and let his shoes stop smoking from the friction of the run. Then he headed to the front desk where he inquired about anyone named Amara Jones or a woman recovered from a warehouse incident. Thankfully, it was visiting time, and he was allowed to go to her room, though he was warned that she was unresponsive.

Barry hesitated before the door of the room as he mentally prepared himself for a woman besides Amara. Then he pulled open the door and walked inside.

She looked like she did the first time Barry had seen her face-to-face. She was bruised a bit and pale. Her hair was a little tangled, but it seemed as though the nurses had brushed it and laid it around her face. Her face. It was so calm. So still. Barry walked to her and pressed his index and middle finger to her wrist to feel her pulse. He didn't trust the pulse oximeter. He needed to know for himself. That she was alive. That Amara was alive. Somehow. Barry kept his fingers on her wrist, constantly worried that her heart would stop, this time forever. "Amara," he whispered, "I won't let myself lose you again."

Ten minutes later, Barry finally forced himself to let go of Amara's wrist and text Team Flash.

"You guys need to come to the hospital now!" He texted. Most of them were adept at viewing new text messages, so Barry assumed they would all arrive shortly.

He was right. The whole gang, except for Harrison Wells, had come: Caitlin, Cisco, Ralph, Iris, Joe, Cecile, and even their baby. Joe, Caitlin, and Cisco all marveled that Amara was alive. Ralph admired her with a smile from a corner of the room while Joe explained Amara's story to Iris and Cecile. When he was done with the explanation, Iris came to Barry and gave him a long kiss.

"What was that for?" he questioned with a grin.

Iris's brow wrinkled with concern. "Her coming back. That doesn't change anything, does it?"

"Of course not, Iris," he answered, cupping his hand around her cheek. "I love you. Don't you remember what happened when I lost you? And we have a kid together! Amara . . ." he turned his gaze to her still form, "I loved her, but that's in the past. I've thought she was dead for years now."

"I don't want to be jealous, Barry," Iris responded, cupping her own hand around his and looking down for a moment, "but if you ever want to talk about your feelings, that's what I'm here for. I'll be here to support her, woman to woman. I understand what it feels like when a villain ruins your life." Barry imagined Iris was thinking about Savitar and Reverse-Flash. One had killed her in the future, but Team Flash had averted that. The other had resulted in the death of Eddie Thawne.

"Thanks, Iris." Barry gently grabbed her hand and brought it down, and then he kissed her in return. At that moment Amara stirred. All eyes, except for Cecile and Joe's baby's, turned to the bed. Amara's eyes sluggishly opened, almost painstakingly slow. Then she blinked many times as she adjusted to the light she hadn't seen for years. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, as if she was savoring breathing in real air, something not from an air pump and tank. She clutched the sheets with her fingers. "Barry?" she whispered in a hoarse voice.

"I'm here," he said. He looked at Iris for a moment, and she nodded, before he stepped toward Amara, taking her hand in his.

"How . . . how long has it been since I was taken?"

"About four years," he answered solemnly.

She closed her eyes and didn't speak for a full minute. "Did Griffin succeed in making a clone of me?"

Barry was confused and wasn't sure how to answer.

"Yes." Everyone's gazes shifted to Caitlin. "Except that clone had metastatic cancer and would have died within a few months if she hadn't––"

"––died from a fire, from Reverse-Flash," Joe finished. "The Amara we knew died. I don't know who you are, but whoever is behind this horrible trick will pay for it." Joe stepped forward threateningly before Cecile stopped him.

"Joe, what are you doing?" she asked worriedly.

"I won't have another villain break my boy's heart. This has to be some trick. I went to Amara's funeral. Barry, you were right next to me. You saw them lower her casket into the ground."

Cecile countered his argument while the rest stood in silence, contemplating this. They had been fooled with things like clones before with Savitar and time remnants. This could all be another trick. "What if this is the truth? She's been in captivity for close to four years. What she needs right now is support. How would you feel if the only person you loved had married someone else in the time you were away?" Cecile suddenly stopped, knowing she had said too much.

Amara's eyes began to water. "Barry. You're married?" She pulled her hand away from Barry's. She looked around the half-circle of people surrounding her bed. Her gaze especially rested on Barry, Cisco, Joe, and Caitlin. Ralph had stopped smiling. "None of you thought there might be some trickery to Griffin? You all believed that clone of me that walked around saying, 'I'm Amara! Nobody look twice?' Did you not notice that there was anything off about my reappearance? If I had been any of you that's what I would have done. You can't trust Griffin. He's a lying, arrogant, piece of––"

"He's dead," Barry spoke quietly. Everyone was silent. No one seemed to be able to look up and face the melancholy yet scornful gaze of Amara. Even the baby was silent.

Amara spoke again. "Good. He deserved it. Caitlin, was there anything strange about my reappearance?"

"Well, you didn't have any scars," Caitlin uttered.

"I'm glad you were all overjoyed to see that I came back, but," tears began to stream down her cheeks, "your carelessness cost me four years of my life. And those four years cost me my job, again, my identity, and the love of my life. I can't look at you all without seeing Griffin." She began to sob. "Go!" She pointed at the door. "Go! Please! Leave me!"

Barry tried to object. "Amara, I was just happy to know you were okay. You had been hurt so many times already––"

She pushed herself up on her bed with her weak arms from years of inactivity and trembled as she spoke, "This is your fault, Barry! You weren't fast enough to stop Griffin! Now hundreds are dead, and my life is ruined because of you! Good work, Flash! You're a real hero! Go get your key to the city now, won't you!" She fell back down and sobbed harder. "Leave!"

Ralph rushed out. Joe and Cecile followed with their baby. Barry gently took Iris's hand and led her outside. Cisco hesitated before leaving, and Caitlin slipped into a chair by Amara's bedside and waited for everyone else to leave. Cisco gently closed the door.

"Go away, Caitlin," Amara sobbed, "I don't want you to see me like this."

Caitlin's gaze was fixed on the floor as she spoke. "I understand how you feel. About everything. I don't want to waste my time explaining to you why you're wrong. Because you're not. It is our fault that we didn't think Griffin was that much of a threat. Most of the metahumans, or villains in general, that we take down, they are gone within either a week or a year. They either help us learn a new skill or a life lesson. Either way, they don't usually ruin our lives forever, but that's what Griffin did to you. I'm so, so sorry we didn't do much of anything to stop him. But as they say, 'the past is in the past.' I can't take back those four years, and I recommend you don't either, especially after Flashpoint––"

"What's Flashpoint?"

Ignoring her question, Caitlin continued, "At least you have a new start. You can go anywhere, do anything, you want now."

"I've already had a new start. You know how well that ended. And you don't know what it took to get there." Amara had a quick image of the bridge and the waters below it pop into her mind.

"You lost the love of your life," Caitlin continued, this time more slowly and quietly. "And in a way, you lost your life. I got Ronnie back only to watch him die again. You lost everything normal in your world because of one man. For you, that man was Griffin. For me, it was Harrison Wells." Her voice was now barely a whisper. "I nearly worshipped that man, even after the particle accelerator exploded, supposedly killing Ronnie. Then I learned that he was Reverse-Flash. That he had been the one to kill Barry's mother. That he had framed Barry's father and sent him to prison. That he had played a role in your clone's death. And that he ruined Ronnie's life." She stared at the opposite wall. "You have no idea how hard it's been for me to work with men who look exactly like the man who nearly killed Ronnie. Every year it's more painful. Every year I see or meet another Harrison Wells. I have to remind myself that if I blame everything on other people, I'll eventually do something to hurt myself, or the ones I love, unintentionally because I don't see when I'm in the wrong. Just understand that on this Earth, in this timeline, things just went the way they did, and if they went any other way, it would be another Earth, another timeline. We are fixed in this place, as if our feet are stuck in dry cement. We just have to stay here and face our problems because there's not any other way."

She looked at Amara with a sorrowful smile. "Your clone was a hero. She died saving a kid, but even so, she ran away from her problems, cancer, by running into a burning building, something she had almost no chance of surviving. I admire that act, but I admit she was too afraid to confess to Barry how she really felt about him and what was happening to her. Maybe if she had, things would have turned out differently." Caitlin set her hand on Amara's with another smile. "If you ever need me, I'm here." She stood up, giving another glance to Amara from the door, and walked away.


	42. Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Tick, Tock

1 week later

"Uh, guys. Amara is back." Barry worriedly looked to his side where she was running, smiling at the freedom of speed. She looked to him and shot a half-smile as they headed to stop a villain. She shouldn't be running after such a short time in the hospital. She had been incapacitated for _four_ years! Wasn't she out of shape? Apparently not, because she was pushing herself to go faster than Barry.

"It's therapeutic," Caitlin assured him. Amara had recently been helping Barry put villains behind bars, but it was strange to work with Amara who, last time he had a conversation with her, had yelled at him and blamed him for ruining her life.

Flash and Amara stopped at a small watch shop at which William Tochman, a.k.a. Clock King, was hiding out, according to Cisco. Cisco and Ralph were already waiting at the entrance in their suits. "What took you so long?" Ralph mocked them.

"I don't see any security," Cisco said while visually scanning the building.

Tochman's hideout was a shop that had green curtains and a flower pot in the window. Antique furniture was sprinkled throughout the small building. It was almost comforting to look inside and imagine sitting by the warm brick fireplace. Even when he looked through the crystal-clear windows, he couldn't see Tochman. Flash and Amara phased through the door.

"They put handles on doors for a reason, you know," Ralph said as he picked the lock on the door with his finger which he had turned into a key. He pushed the door open, and Cisco followed in after him.

Grandfather clocks lined the walls of the shop. Small, carefully designed watches lay in small glass cases. A crackling fire with no one to enjoy its warmth burned in an old brick fireplace that sat in a nook. "Don't touch anything," Barry whispered to his partners.

Amara also looked around at the cozy place that was used as the shopkeeper's home and hideout. She was amazed by the hospitality this villain had offered for guests at his shop. Barry was surprised that this man was even a villain. If this was his hideout, where did he construct his heists?

"How's the suit faring?" Cisco asked Amara. "Sorry it's a bit dusty."

"It's fine," she answered quietly while inspecting anything out of place. "The dust all flew off during the run here. I'm just glad you didn't throw it away."

"Throw it away?" Cisco exclaimed, not caring about his volume. "I never throw away my works of art!"

"Wow, this is one of those antique grandfather clocks, right?" Ralph traced his fingers around a button-like flower carved into the side of a giant grandfather clock that was several feet taller than him and about three feet wide. He pushed down on the center of the flower, and a sudden grinding noise caused him to jump back in alarm. The large glass window on the clock slid away. The pendulum and the background also glided away and were replaced with a small view of a dark hallway. The four metahumans were both left in awe but cautiously stepped through the small gap in the clock.

"I feel like Nancy Drew," Amara commented.

"I feel like one of the Hardy boys," Barry remarked. It felt too strange to be talking to his old partner and girlfriend who was supposed to be dead.

"Then who's the other Hardy boy?" Ralph asked as he stepped through the opening.

In an annoyed tone of voice, Cisco answered him, "You can be the other Hardy boy, Ralph."

"Yes!" Ralph whispered jubilantly in celebration. "You know, I became a detective because of those––" His voice disappeared down what seemed like a long shaft.

"Ralph!" Barry shouted down the dark, cramped tunnel behind the clock. "Are you okay?"

No sound came for a worrying amount of time. "Yeah but take a look at this. This guy really lives up to his family name."

Barry went through the tunnel, then Cisco, then Amara, each hearing an ominous ticking noise as they went further into the tunnel. When they stepped out, they all gazed in awe at the new room. It contained blueprints and piles upon piles of pages, but that was not what they gawked at. They were amazed because of the clocks of all sizes, shapes, and colors that concealed almost every part of the wall. There were so many ticking noises from the multitudinous number of clocks that it was hard to hear anything else, even footsteps. Nearly every clock was strange. One was in the shape of a spiral. Others appeared to be made of fake food. One of them was hung over something like a single towel rack and appeared to be like one of the clocks in Salvador Dali's "Persistence of Memory" painting.

"Weirdness," Amara muttered in a sing-song voice.

Cisco whispered to himself in awe, "He really is the Clock King."

Curious, Barry stepped to a chair where a man was sitting. It could have been Tochman. He didn't turn around as Barry approached, so Barry spun the chair to make the man face him. It was some kind of mannequin which gave Barry a quick relapse into the past during which _he_ was a mannequin.

Hundred-dollar bills resided in the false man's pocket. Had Tochman stored his loot in here? Barry reached his hand into the pocket to inspect the money. He unwittingly triggered a lever on some kind on a contraption that was strapped to the bottom of the pocket. A timer on the small device that read "0:01" beeped a few times before it sent shrapnel throughout every inch of the room. The glass from the many clocks shot out at the speedsters. Barry entered Flashtime without hesitation and noticed Amara did not seem to know how to do so. Barry grabbed her arm, also allowing her to enter Flashtime.

Amara watched the shrapnel hover in midair inches from her face. "Whoa. It's like running even though I'm standing still!"

"Let's hope that bomb didn't transport us into the sixties," Barry remarked with a smirk. "Anyway, this is Flashtime. Everything, as you can see, moves as slowly as if we are running at superspeed. Speedsters can stand it much longer than non-speedsters. Apparently, it's great to use to escape explosions; this is the second time something like this has happened to me."

"Wow. You never taught me about Flashtime. Did you just discover this ability recently?"

"Yeah. I discovered it in the year I was fighting the Thinker." Barry waved it off like it was nothing.

"The Thinker?"

"Oh. It's a long story."

Barry eyed the shrapnel advancing toward his eyes. "We should probably get going."

Amara seemed to notice the shards for the first time. "Yeah. Let's finish this conversation some other time. I'm going to check to see if there are any civilians." Amara made a move to leave Barry, but he held his grip on her arm.

"Hold on. Since you don't know how to stay in Flashtime yourself yet, I need to give you some of my speed."

"Oh. Yeah. That could have been bad." This time, she eyed the shrapnel with disgust, imaging what could have happened.

Barry closed his eyes in concentration, and a moment later, lightning circled around Amara's legs. Barry then let go. Amara nodded before running through the room, dodging the shards. Worried for her safety, Barry watched her for a moment longer. Amara had died in a building fire only four years ago. What if that happened again? He forced the thought to the back of his mind and grabbed Ralph and Cisco's arms, bestowing speed upon them for the time being. They looked around wildly, and both nearly fell to the floor, which would have been bad since they were moving at superspeed and didn't have super healing.

"We're in Flashtime again, aren't we?" Cisco asked Barry.

"Yeah," Barry answered. "Be very careful on your way out, got that Ralph?" Ralph's index finger was poised inches away from a piece of shrapnel that would slice his finger like a chainsaw at these speeds. At least he could take any form and it probably wouldn't be an issue for him.

"Oh, yeah, Flash," Bringing his hand down to his side obediently, Ralph answered.

"And don't touch anything," Barry scolded before telling them to leave the building carefully. Barry took another glance at the clock-covered walls before following them. Just as they left, and Barry exited Flashtime, which resulted in the others withdrawing from it. Flames burst out of the small shop, and pieces of clock mechanics flew into the street. A piece of shrapnel shot toward Barry at bullet speed. He moved to dodge it, but he had too distracted from the other shrapnel and pieces of wood flying that he didn't notice it until it was less than an inch away from the center of his chest. Moving to the right, he left streaks of lightning to his left, and the shrapnel nearly grazed the edge of his left arm. Meanwhile, purple streaks of lightning showed that Amara was busy moving Cisco and Ralph farther away from the explosion.

Once they were all at a safe distance, Ralph asked, "Could you not have taken us further away from the building, Flash?"

"You guys didn't get Clock King, did you?" Caitlin asked them on the coms. She had been so quiet during the entire mission Barry nearly jumped when her voice spoke in his ear.

"No. He had a bomb ready for us when we came into his secret room," Barry told her disappointedly. Flash and Acceler8 left almost simultaneously, and Vibe breached Ralph and himself back to STAR Labs.

"I'm guessing I'll have to call the fire department," Caitlin said when they arrived.

Cisco asked, "How did you––"

"I could hear the explosion on the coms," Caitlin replied as she sent the information to the fire department. "Amara," she said when she was done. "Come with me. I need to check your vitals."

"But––"

"You were inactive for four years. You have nothing to prove. It's not your fault you're out of shape. Come here."

Amara begrudgingly trudged to the med bay.

Amara spoke to the team while Caitlin preformed her tests. "I saw some blueprints in his secret room for some buildings. The layouts were all for banks. Every bank blueprint there he had robbed. Except for one: Central City Bank. I think that he might be in transit right now."

"I'm done here," Caitlin told her. "Overall, you're fine, but I think you should take it easy. Your heart rate is a bit more elevated than it should be for a speedster at rest, so don't keep trying to beat Barry."

"But––"

"Just go," Caitlin told her, "Just don't go too quickly." The four of them ran or teleported to the bank within seconds. Even as a criminal who was not a meta-human, Tochman was still extremely dangerous and would do almost anything to stick to his schedule.

"Barry, you don't suppose that Tochman could have set up another trap for us, right?" Amara stared ahead as they ran, concentrating on the road.

"Even if it is a trap, we need to stop him," Barry replied. "Tochman would do anything to stay on time with his bank robbing schedule, even if it means getting people out of his way."

"I understand," she answered calmly.

They stopped outside Central City Bank. The robbery must have begun minutes ago. The people inside were being forced to the ground. Some were crying, while a brave couple of people prepared to fight back against Tochman's robbery. The people of Central City had begun to get used to the craziness, robberies, and other freak events that happened every week; however, that feeling of normalcy didn't protect them from the danger that tore apart the city. They had gotten through the major threats like Zoom and Thinker, but Barry had a feeling much more was to come.

"What's your plan, Barry?" Amara whispered. Cisco and Ralph waited beside them.

He thought about the possible outcomes at lightning speed before he answered, "Tochman is obsessed with time. If we can find some way to mess up his schedule, or mess with time, then maybe we can stop him efficiently."

"How are you planning on messing up his schedule?"

He smiled at his simple plan. "All we need to do is speed in there and change the time on every device that shows it. That should distract Tochman enough to let us knock him out."

She was concerned by the simple yet crazy idea he had. "Are you really sure that's going to distract him? He might notice the time change and just get aggravated. Then he might—"

"Did you think of something better than that?"

"Okay," she replied as she rolled her eyes, "You men are ridiculously stubborn. Let's take down Clock King."

Cisco gave her a small smile. "There isn't much we can do at superspeed," Cisco told them as he gestured to Ralph and himself. "We'll leave it to you two for now."

Flash and Acceler8 raced through the bank, changing the time on every clock, watch, and other digital device. When they were done, they raced into a hallway and waited for the right moment to act. For a periodic check, Tochman held his arm up to look at his incorrect watch. All they had to do was advance the time by a couple of minutes for him to be disoriented.

"What? I'm behind schedule? What did I do wrong?" he yelled. He pounded on his watch and looked at the others in the room, all of which were calibrated to the same incorrect time. At that moment, the speedsters lunged at him, knocking him to the ground. His gun skidded to the wall as Flash knocked Tochman unconscious and gave Acceler8 a high five. Several people began to take photos on their phones of their hero. Acceler8 beheld the phones with a scrutinizing gaze.

"What phone is out now?" she asked them curiously. "There's not even a home button on that thing! Wait, are those three camera lenses? What's the point of that?" Some people eyed her strangely.

One woman replied, "It's the X."

Amara asked, "So they've gotten to ten now?"

"No," the woman replied, studying the back of her phone. "It's the ninth one, but they called it X. I know. It's stupid."

"What are the new features?"

Barry had to grab Amara's arm and pull her away. "What are you doing?" she asked him after they were outside the building. "I'm trying to be cool. I don't want to be thought of as some old lady who doesn't know what's in style."

"There's plenty of time to do that, but not when there is still a villain in the building."

"Fine. I always hate this part," she grumbled.

Ralph walked up to her, wringing his hands nervously, then straightened when he noticed she was watching him. He formed his body to have a six pack and large muscles as he walked her way which made her giggle. "So, Acceler8. I hear you're available. You saved my life at Clock King's hideout, so I owe you one."

"Actually," she corrected, "it was the Flash who saved you."

"Oh," he said, waving it off with his abnormally large muscles, "that doesn't matter. I owe you one for that, so would you like to hook up? Maybe go on a date?"

Barry was watching the conversation now with great interest, along with the freed people coming out of the bank.

This reminded Amara of Cisco's proposal to go on a date which almost ended in her dying, again. "You know, I think I'm good." she replied. With that, she walked away, leaving Ralph to deflate his phony muscles in silence.


	43. Chapter 43

Chapter 43

Flashback

Amara had finally escaped Griffin after years of being held as his prisoner. She discovered what those tanks were for and what she had stolen the tech for in 2014. He had been using the tech to create clones. The clones were made from her. He had kept Amara in a tank like some animal in a lab experiment. When he finally had a clone that survived long enough to gather information and possibly even capture the Flash, he had sent the clone to be on Team Flash. After he discovered that the clone didn't have powers, he forgot about her. He continued trying to make clones with speed powers, but it never worked. No acquired traits remained with the cloning process except for those of the mind since he downloaded all the original's memories into the clone. His plan was to eventually be able to clone himself to practically be immortal. If his body's health dwindled again, then he would just make another clone. Thankfully, he couldn't. There's a reason why people don't live forever on Earth.

For months, Griffin desperately tried to extract her powers to be able to deliver them to his clone. During that time, his health dwindled to the point where he would have to stay in the med bay 24/7. His most trusted lieutenants kept watch over him. He passed away from Alzheimer's. After that, there was no "one man" to lead since he had destroyed Kole. It was his most-trusted men against his rookies. Kole had repeated over and over when Amara was first brought to their facility that those rookies would be the death of Thunder Corps, yet Griffin never made them leave. He needed them. He hadn't gotten the obedient army of metahumans like he wanted, so he needed the rookies to work harder to make up for their absence. The two sides waged a battle inside the laboratory for the leadership of the organization. During all of this, Amara was in a coma-like state inside of a tank. It was an all-out war inside the warehouse, bullets ripping through the tanks, shelves, and people. Those hundreds of bullets also killed everyone inside except for Amara who was protected by the surrounding tanks, the glass of her own tank, and the thick substance that kept her suspended and nourished inside the central tank. Even though she had been able to hear what went on around her, she was only vaguely aware. She remembered the experience as if it were a dream. But it was. And it had ruined her life.

Amara ran her fingers over the letters carved into the headstone––Amara C. Jones. It was infinitely strange to be next to her own dead body and touch her headstone. Well, she wasn't sure if she could call it her body. It was a clone. A copy. Could the body six feet under her be called Amara C. Jones? Or was it just a science experiment? Amara had her own opinion.

Even though this was a clone, she had died. Amara treated the clone as another person, a hero even. She set down a bouquet of flowers in front of the grave and stood for a moment of silence. This clone had thought she _was_ Amara Jones. She was willing to die for Barry. The clone didn't even have powers. This Amara hoped she could do the same if the time came. But like Caitlin said, the clone had made the mistake of not facing her problems and instead running into danger hoping "the end" would erase all of those problems.

And the clone had been right. The problems went away. For herself. Everyone else still had to deal with those problems after she was gone which tarnished her memory.

Maybe all these setbacks hadn't ruined Amara's life––the lightning strike, being kidnapped by Griffin––twice––being cloned. Maybe they were all just new chances. If so, she had been given many more chances than anyone else she knew. Maybe she was important. Maybe . . . maybe there was a way for her to turn around, to go the other way. To fix things. She could make amends with her parents. Although, she might give them a heart attack if she came to their doorstep saying, "Hey, I'm alive!" She could learn to love someone else . . . possibly. She could continue to fight for the city in ways she never could have before. She backed away from the grave with a sad smile on her face and looked to the cloudy sky.

"Hey, Amara," she spoke awkwardly. She whispered under her breath, "I must sound insane," before speaking to the clouds again. "I'm going to continue your legacy. I'm going to fight for you. And I won't let myself make the same mistakes you did." With that, she turned her gaze back to the ground and closed her eyes. Her life could end at any moment with her being a superhero. She needed to be ready to say her goodbyes. A lightning trail leading to STAR Labs trailed her as she ran.

Glancing at Amara, Cisco busied himself by pulling out a dry-erase board from a corner of the room. On it was mostly writing about Earth-2, Earth-3, Earth-32, and Earth-X. There was also some writing about a multiverse at the top of the board. Amara had arrived from the cemetery seconds after she left it, but she had stood in silence at STAR Labs for at least ten minutes now. She had stared at a letter on the table in that time labeled "To Amara's Mom and Dad." The rest of the team had gone home, except for Barry who was probably talking to Gideon in Eobard Thawne's old time vault.

"What are you doing?" Amara asked.

He glanced at her, surprised, before answering. "I'm . . ." Cisco drew some more symbols and continued, "plotting out the multiverse. My powers are based on this kind of stuff, so I thought I should understand it. We also discovered another Earth, Earth-X, just recently. After that battle, I decided it was time that we completely understood what every Earth is like, so we hopefully don't run into any more situations like that."

"What's the multiverse?"

"It's an infinite amount of Earths. If I understand this correctly, whenever you have a decision to make, there can be at least two different outcomes of that choice, so another Earth forms in which you do the opposite. Then, imagine how many Earths there are if there have been decisions since, well, maybe even the beginning of time. Then, on those other Earths, its inhabitants also make decisions and so on. It's pretty complicated, and Earths are probably forming right now. There might even be other Earths forming with different outcomes of this conversation. At least, that's how I learned it worked. However, before today, we had only discovered Earth-X as the most recent one. The Earths might go on forever, all occupying the same space but at different vibrational intensities. It's almost like how you speedsters phase through materials, except that entire Earths, universes even, do it constantly. There are infinite Earths right where we're standing. I think that the Earths go on forever, but it's just like the universe; you can never know for sure."

Amara shook her head in a tangled mass of Brobdingnagian confusion that she could never even begin to wrap her mind around.

"I've been using my Vibe powers to explore each of these Earths in my free time, which, unfortunately, has not been plentiful with the Thinker and Savitar and all."

Amara studied the scattered objects on the desk that took up a small portion of the Cortex, unlike when she had been there in 2014. The desk used to be huge. The Cortex and STAR Labs were definitely different than when she had last seen it. One object in particular on the desk caught her attention. It was a small metal circle with four short arms coming out of each side.

"Hey, Cisco. What's this?" she questioned as she held it up and examined it.

He turned around as he began to say, "I'm busy right—" His eyes widened, and his hands came up to stop her. "Hold. It. Right. There. Put that down." He hurriedly grabbed the device from her hands and set it down gently on the desk.

"This," he told her with some anger in his voice, "is very delicate equipment. It's called a tachyon enhancer. It's only in the Cortex because I keep forgetting to fix it. I needed to put it somewhere I would see it repeatedly. This is actually the outdated version, but it's always good to have a backup."

"What does it do?"

"We've used it to increase Barry's speed. It made him able to travel to another Earth. It's helpful when I'm not around to teleport him with my powers. I'm going to need to replace the power system on it, though. When Barry traveled to that Earth with Supergirl, he practically fried it. It needs a lot more juice if it's ever going to run again."

Amara looked back at Cisco's board. She could see one Earth that he described being "an uninhabited frozen wasteland––bring more than a winter coat." That could be useful for storing the more dangerous villains they encountered, as long as it didn't end like The Thing.

Amara then noticed another item on the desk that appeared to be a grenade. She didn't touch that one but did ask about it.

"Can you tell me what this is?"

He turned around with his marker still in his hand. "Ugh. Will anyone give me some peace and quiet?" He sighed and rolled his eyes. "What do you want to know?" She pointed at the grenade-like device. Cisco's face lit up. "Now that," he said pointing, "Is worth talking about." He set down his marker and took a few steps toward it. He carefully picked up the small device and told her, "This is a speed grenade, as I like to call it, except that instead of making an _explosion_, it makes something closer to an _implosion_. When you pull out the pin, the grenade sucks in all the kinetic energy in the area over time. It affects all the speedsters in the area. I thought it would be good to have around in case another evil speedster shows up. We seem to have one every year. I actually got the idea from Thunder Corps' energy bullets which use the surrounding kinetic energy to make them go faster.

"Remember in science class in those good old school days? The teacher would repeat a million times, 'Energy cannot be created or destroyed.' Of course, with my brilliant outlook on science, I actually used something I learned from school and made this device convert the kinetic energy it drains into enough potential energy that when the pin is replaced, it releases that energy into the air like a super battery. Any and all electronic devices in the area get powered up for about five minutes. Pretty cool, right?"

She nodded while eying the speed grenade. That could be very useful against a villain, but very dangerous for Barry and her like in the case of Captain Cold's cold gun. That had originally been stolen from STAR Labs after Cisco created it as a failsafe in the scenario that Barry became evil, and a civilian was even killed by the weapon. It was surprising Cisco didn't see the danger in the technology.

Suddenly, a ping came up on Cisco's screen. "What now?" he asked with a groan as he checked his computer. "There's an attack at the Central City Stadium. It says there's . . . a man in a yellow suit. . ." Cisco trailed off.

Urgency overcame Amara's voice, and she demanded, "Don't tell Barry where I went; I don't want him to get hurt. And stay here, Cisco! You're not fast enough to protect yourself against Reverse-Flash!"

"I'm coming," Cisco told her, already heading for his suit.

Amara sprinted in front of him, leaving a purple trail of lightning. "You're one of my best friends, and I can't watch you die." She stared into his eyes for a moment before leaning forward and kissing his cheek. "I hope that makes up for our failed date. Stay here."

"You said I was '_one_ of your best friends.' What is that supposed to mean?" he asked with a forlorn smile.

"Just stay safe," Amara replied gloomily. Already suited up, she grabbed the speed grenade and the tachyon enhancer before she left. She would need all the weapons she could get her hands on for this villain. She ran out and turned off her communicator. She didn't want Cisco to hear the sounds of this battle. She couldn't risk him wanting to come help.

When she arrived at the stadium, she checked to see if anyone besides the man in a yellow suit was there. There was a man lying on the ground near the gates to the stadium. He was on his stomach, so she had to turn him over to see his identity. He was in his fifties. It looked like he was a janitor. After checking his pulse and making sure he was all right, she entered the field. Reverse-Flash stood in all his vileness in the center of the field, waiting.

"Reverse-Flash, I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else," Amara declared, her shoulders squared, prepared for battle.

"You mean besides you and Barry? You know," he spoke as he began to circle her like a wolf around prey, "I was hoping that the Flash might be coming, but I guess I can delay until he arrives." He paused and examined her, his eyes growing wide. He became uncharacteristically afraid and surprised. "How are you . . ." Trembling, his index finger pointed at her. "I killed you!"

"At least this time I can defend myself you . . ."

At this he regained his composure. "Aw. The poor superhero can't allow herself to express herself using bad language."

Reverse-Flash suddenly leapt to Amara. She made an attempt to dodge his attacks, but he was too quick. He came at her with one hit after another in what seemed to be an infinite blur of pain. She fell out of exhaustion and hurt, which gave Reverse-Flash some time to rest his arms. Before long, her entire body ached with the multitudinous number of bruises he had delivered in the short amount of time. She rolled on her back to face the sky that was filled with stars and . . . planets . . . like Earth. That made her think about that Earth Cisco had written about––that cold, uninhabited Earth.

She forced herself to stand as Reverse-Flash prepared to strike again. She couldn't let him kill her again. He pulled back and brought his hand backward for another punch. She dodged a few inches to the side and narrowly avoided his punch. She repeated this process many times and succeeded for every one of them due to her renewed hope of how to stop this maniac.

After a while of only dodging, she threw some punches at him in return. She knew she couldn't keep this up forever; she was already staggering. She hit him hard in the stomach, and he stepped back to compose himself.

During the intermission, she pulled out the speed grenade and eyed it for a moment. Cisco had told her that it slowly drains the power of all the speedsters in the area. She didn't know what else to do. She threw the pin to the ground, lifted the trigger, and dropped the grenade. There was no explosion, only a light breeze that signaled the beginning of the kinetic energy drain. All the energy would be stored inside of the grenade, making them both slow. Amara had not fully acclimated to her speed powers after being locked away for years with no physical activity, and Reverse-Flash had had his powers for many years, relying upon them with his life. She hoped that if he was slower, it would give her the upper hand with her being more used to slow speeds anyway.

"What are you doing?" Reverse-Flash shouted in fury.

"Ending you," she told him simply. She could feel the speed being drained from herself. The lightning surrounding them began to subside little by little. He came back at her with renewed anger. He punched her repeatedly in the stomach until she could hardly stand. She spoke clearly despite her pain, "I'll fight you to my last breath no matter how many times I have to do it."

"Very well then," he replied. "To your last breath we will fight."


	44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44

"Not again."

Barry entered the Cortex to find a panicking Cisco. Barry took a glance around the room before asking, "Where's Amara?"

"Thawne is back," Cisco said breathlessly.

"What?" Barry's eyes widened. Thawne had said he would be back, but . . . Barry had hoped he wouldn't fulfill his promise.

"And Amara went after him," Cisco finished. He stood up to grab his suit once again.

"No, Cisco. I need someone here on the coms, and you're not fast enough."

"I can't let both my friends be killed!"

"I'll be fine," Barry assured him. He mumbled, "I just hope Amara will be."

"Barry, they're at Central City Stadium."

"Thanks."

When Flash arrived seconds later, Amara was standing up to Reverse-Flash, but was clutching her stomach in pain. Her only visible bruises were on her face. Thawne turned his head when he realized someone else was watching. His face curled into a wicked smile when he realized it was the Flash.

"Hello, Barry Allen!" He stepped forward, gesticulating his welcome.

"How did you cheat death again, Thawne?"

"That's my specialty. 'Magicians never reveal their secrets.'" Reverse-Flash grinned, which made Flash even angrier.

As, Reverse-Flash was caught off guard, Flash was able to punch him in the face. Reverse-Flash staggered backwards on the field, but he quickly recovered and began to come at Flash once again. He seemed to be slower than usual. Amara was unable to use much speed at all. Barry ran away.

He hoped she wouldn't take it the wrong way, him leaving her with a homicidal maniac from the future for a couple of moments. His hope was that he would be back in time so that it would be like he never left. Hopefully. Otherwise, that would be a _fun_ conversation.

When he reached the distance of 5.3 miles, Barry heard Cisco exclaim over the coms, "OMG! This is awesome! You're doing your supersonic punch! You haven't done that in forever!"

Flash ran as fast as he could without time traveling. He had to get back. One thought circulated through his mind.

_I'm not going to let her die today. Not again._


	45. Chapter 45

Chapter 45

Kindle

Amara saw a blur of yellow lightning flee. Was that Barry? There was no time to think. To act. Barely enough time to avoid fists flying at her face. She was already tired from the extreme exertion. Her powers were nearly gone due to the speed grenade. She hesitated for a moment, only a moment. But that was enough time for him. Reverse-Flash grabbed her by her suit and lifted her into the air. He punched her once again in the stomach but not just one punch. A barrage hit her, pounded her, pummeled her. He let go, and she dropped to the grass of the field. She coughed up blood on the grass and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

She dropped her head to the ground in exhaustion but quickly brought her attention back when Flash ran into the stadium at near full speed. His fist was extended from what she could see in the blur. Before Reverse-Flash fully realized what was going on, the Flash's fist slammed into his face. They both fell to the ground and rolled at least twenty feet. Flash's head smacked against a pole, instantly making his eyes close. The clang resounded through the stadium. Amara immediately assumed the worst. Despite her pain she raced to his side to check his pulse. He was only unconscious.

_Whew._

Reverse-Flash was passed out on the field. He had a broken jaw and a concussion at best––for him at least. In Amara's opinion, he didn't deserve that peace of being unconscious during the pain for the monster he was. His healing powers would keep him from dying from an injury like that, though it would take a while for his powers to recharge.

She knelt beside Barry and began to speak. "Barry, I doubt you can hear me, but if I don't tell you this, I will regret it for the rest of the time I have on this Earth." She looked up. "Or other Earths.

"I'm not running away from my problems. I'm doing this for you. For Caitlin. For Cisco. For Joe. For Central City. Thawne will probably come back, but this time I have to do this." She knelt down to Barry's face and gingerly kissed his forehead. "Have a great life. Thank you for doing that for me." She turned her communicator on again.

"Flash! Acceler8! What––is––going––on? Talk to me! Hello? Are my coms not working? Please answer. And please don't let this be a prank. Guys! This isn't funny! Speak, my children! Speak! Arg. Answer. Me. Now. Hel-lo? Anyone home? Speedsters? What's happening with Reverse-Flash? You know, you two made me stay here in the Cortex, so the least you can do is answer me. All right. I'm accessing security cameras in the stadium."

Amara chuckled, then spoke in a more serious tone of voice. "We're here, Cisco. And Barry's okay, just unconscious. So is Thawne. Do you see the letters on the desk in the Cortex?"

"Oh, you're glad I just cleaned this table off, or I wouldn't be able to find them in the junkyard that is my desk." There was no sound for a moment as he gathered the letters. "Wait," he said quietly when he sat back down, "what are these for?"

"Deliver them to the right people," she answered with tears now brimming her eyes. This was it. After so many times when it could have ended forever, here it was. The end. The point of no return.

"Whatever you're doing, stop. You mean too much to this team. Barry has already lost you."

"Cisco, you all have gotten along just fine without me."

"Amara, stop! Come back to STAR Labs! We can find some other way!"

"I've done as much as I can for this team, except for this. I can't let any of you be put into danger from him for as long as I'm alive."

"Which I have a feeling won't be long based on how you're talking. Please. There _has_ to be another way. Tell me what you're doing so I can help. Please."

"Even if you vibe him to the frozen Earth, you'll lose your focus from the cold, and you won't get back."

Thawne began to stir. His super healing was working faster than Amara thought, even with the speed grenade absorbing most of his powers. She couldn't waste another second.

She didn't want to do this, but other people had made sacrifices before to keep Thawne away for as long as possible. Eddie. Ronnie. The Legends. They had all made sacrifices. The time had come to contradict everything that Griffin had ever said to her. This was her time to make a difference in her death.

She fumbled around in the grass for a few moments before finding the pin. She hesitated before sticking it back in the speed grenade. According to Cisco, the released energy would act like a super battery to all nearby electronics. The brightness of the lights in the stadium went up by at least a hundred percent. She squinted her eyes, causing a tear to drop. The scoreboards in the stadium lit up. The tachyon enhancer made a whirring noise. It was working.

She gave Barry a sad smile. "I will always keep running home to you, Barry, even if it's inside my heart in my last moments. I wish you a long, happy life with Iris." She picked up Reverse-Flash and began to run.

As she ran faster, she could see more and more flashes of lightning on either side of her. Barry faded from view. The lightning began turning into blue streaks. She lost all sense of time in the whirl of blue that surrounded her. The communicator stopped working, leaving Cisco's voice as only a memory in her mind. Memories and moments that she hadn't even experienced appeared as she ran through the multiverse. Many images of Reverse-Flash appeared. One image showed her lying in a hospital bed with an engagement ring on her left hand. Barry held that hand, tears streaming down his face. Amara lay, her head bare, her skin wan. Another image appeared before she finished watching that one. It showed Cisco emerging from a blue, whirring hole like the one Amara had entered to get into the multiverse. Amara was draped in his arms, again pale but this time with snow lining her suit and hair. Her face was bruised, much like how it was at the present moment. Another image showed a young girl that looked much like a child of Barry and Iris . . . or Barry and Amara. The girl ran with superspeed, purple and yellow lightning left in her wake. Did Amara have a happy ending in any universe? On any Earth? Was she truly ever with Barry? Before she could ponder this any longer, the memories and events from the past, present, and future faded. The blue streaks slowly changed into an icy landscape. Her lightning and her speed came to an end. The tachyon enhancer had resorted to draining her speed once she put it on and after it ran out of the power supplied by the speed grenade. Amara dropped Reverse-Flash on the ground and stared in awe at the foreign landscape. Mountains of ice and snow took up the majority of the horizon. The winds full of spears of ice bit at her eyes and face. She stared at the mountains even through the pain for a while before she finally fell to her knees, succumbing to the cold. She groggily looked to Thawne who was recovering from his wounds at a much faster pace. With the speed grenade missing from the area, Reverse-Flash's quick healing was fully kicking in, while Amara's was almost fully depleted because of the tachyon enhancer. He would survive the cold, at least for a while. She was freezing. Her neck and fingers wouldn't move from the warmth being drained from her extremities. She fell on her side and lay there, thinking about what she used to have and wishing she could be one of the other Amara Joneses in the multiverse, one who was never taken by Griffin. One whom Barry fell in love with. One who died of old age with the name "Amara Allen." She wished . . .

Amara closed her eyes and laid her head on the back of the sofa, relishing the heat and comfort. Barry opened the front door. "Hey, honey. How was work today?" he asked her like he did every day.

She lifted her head and replied, "It was okay. The migraine kind of ruined things, though. How was work for you?"

He came around the other side of the sofa and sat next to her. "It was good, nothing too special." She leaned into him and shared a kiss. When they had finished the expression of affection, he told her, "Happy wedding anniversary, Amara Allen."

Her eyes jolted open when she realized that the image was a mirage in her mind. The cold once again bit into her skin. She knew that her last moments were near. Hallucinations were never a good sign. She leaned her head against the ground rather than the imaginary sofa.

As much as she wanted to be with Barry, as much as she had fantasized her future with him, it wasn't meant to be. Barry and Iris were meant for each other the way peanut butter was meant for jelly.

At least Amara would be content in knowing she was a hero, and she hadn't run away from her problems. She had done this because she had to, because she truly wanted to save the ones she loved.

She had now "died" from lightning, fire, and now, ice. Nature really seemed to hate her.

"Goodbye, Barry," she whispered across Earths, time, and the entire multiverse. As she was freezing, the people she knew and loved in her life would keep her going until the end. Even as the ice and snow clawed at her skin, her heart was warm, kindled by the fires of her loved ones.


	46. Chapter 46

Chapter 46

Freedom

Barry awoke to see Amara race away into a blue whirl that led into the multiverse.

_What happened? _

"Amara! Come back! Don't go!" Cisco cried out on the coms.

"Cisco?" Barry asked groggily. "What happened?" He sat up abruptly. "Where's Thawne?"

"Barry? You have to help me get Amara. She went to this frozen Earth. She took Thawne with her."

Without wasting another moment, Barry ran to the Cortex so quickly he nearly time traveled. "I hope you have a winter coat."

"No. Nothing I have at STAR Labs is warm enough. It's so cold there we wouldn't be able to focus using our powers. Getting there won't be helpful to Amara if we can't get back. I was barely able to make it back when I was exploring, and that was the last Earth I visited because it's too dangerous. We need Caitlin to Hulk out. Killer Frost should be able to withstand the cold if she's like Elsa."

"What?"

"Never mind. Just grab Caitlin, make her angry so she becomes Killer Frost, and I'll vibe her to the Earth." When Barry was gone, Cisco picked up Amara's letters. He hoped he would never have to read the one labeled "Team Flash."

Barry arrived moments later with Caitlin in his arms. She wore pajamas and a night robe. Being whisked to work during her time off was enough to make her become Killer Frost. Blond hair seized the former brown color. Her eyes turned a piercing bright blue. "What was that for?" Killer Frost asked in a voice that sounded like grinding ice.

"Amara's in trouble," Cisco answered. "We need you to get her."

"Some notice would have been nice," Killer Frost mumbled, eying her pink nightclothes. "Will Caitlin ever change her fashion sense? Someone get me my jacket and some pants."

Barry dashed away to retrieve her old blue jacket and leather pants from storage and came back seconds later. "Hurry," he said as he handed her the clothes. She ran to the bathrooms to change.

"Is this really necessary?" Cisco asked, nearly biting his nails in anxiety. "Amara is freezing out there."

"I don't like it either," Barry replied, "but this is Killer Frost we're dealing with. If she doesn't get her way, she could refuse to help Amara. You know she doesn't work in pink."

"I guess you're right, but you now how long it takes women to get ready. They take forev––"

"What was that you were saying?" Killer Frost stepped into the Cortex in her new outfit. "I'm ready. Let's go save Barry's girlfriend."

"She's not my––"

"Let it go, Barry," Cisco said before slipping on his glasses and opening a breach. "I'll stay here to keep it open," he told Killer Frost. "But don't take too long. I can feel the cold coming in already." She nodded and jumped through. "Oh, wait," Cisco shouted after her. "Come back!"

"Ugh. What now?" She stepped back through the breach into the Cortex.

"You can't search an entire planet. Barry, give me something of Amara's."

"Like what? There's nothing here." Barry looked around frantically.

"Wait," Cisco said, closing the breach as he stepped away. He grabbed the letters she had written and began to feel a vibe coming on. The image of the Cortex blinked away and was replaced with Amara sitting in the invention lab writing the letters. On a computer was an image of the Earth from space with Central City's location marked with a pin. The image blinked away, and the Cortex was once again before him. "Of course," he told himself. "She's where Central City would be. Specifically, the stadium." Cisco sat in his chair to calculate where Amara would have ended up. "So, last time I went to the frozen Earth while I was exploring, I did some few key measurements which help me know the date on that Earth because of the Earth's relative distance from the sun and whatnot. Because of this, I know exactly what time of day it is where Central City would be on that planet. I can create a breach there." He jumped from his chair and immediately created a breach. Killer Frost jumped in, looking annoyed this had taken so long.

"You don't think we're too late, are we?" Barry asked Cisco.

Cisco hesitated for a moment. "I hope not."

"I've got her! Close it!" Killer Frost shouted through the breach. She tumbled out the other side into the Cortex with Amara. Cisco obeyed, closing the breach. Just before it closed, however, Barry could have sworn he had seen red lightning and a flash of yellow dart past him. Killer Frost was breathing heavily. Amara was just barely breathing. Killer Frost returned to being Caitlin and stared, wide-eyed, at Amara who was next to her.

"What is going on?" Caitlin asked, but her question went unanswered. Barry and Cisco helped lift Amara up and bring her to a bed.

"Why does she have to be so reckless?" Barry asked with a heavy sigh.

Amara was swiftly hooked up with a pulse oximeter, IV fluids, and Barry's friction barrier made by moving his hands at superspeed above her body. Amara's lips were blue, and her pulse was very slow. "Did you install some kind of heating mechanism in Amara's suit?" Barry asked Cisco.

"No." Cisco seemed disappointed in himself. "I haven't made any adjustments to her suit since 2014." They returned to silence for the time being.

"I think Amara should be fine," Caitlin told them. "She might have some minor frostbite, but her super healing should fix that soon enough."

"How many times has Amara 'died' now?" Cisco asked.

Barry answered, "Too many." Maybe being a superhero wasn't what Amara was meant to do. Barry noticed he was hardly ever seriously injured while Amara had nearly died at least three times. _When she wakes up,_ he told himself, _I need to tell her._

"I'm just saying, Thawne could have escaped. That makes this whole thing pointless. I did it so that he would be gone. So, only some other version of him could do you harm."

Barry said, "That's very thoughtful of you, but you're not the only person who has to sacrifice herself." Amara was reacting poorly to the idea of ending her Acceler8 alias. She wanted to be a hero. Apparently, she didn't realize she already was one.

"Here," Cisco told Amara as he handed her the envelopes. Let's hope you never need these."

"But––"

"Take them. I agree with Barry. You need to stop using your powers as a superhero. Lie low. Live your life. Isn't that what you wanted before?"

"What am I supposed to do? Go back to the CCPD and hope they hire someone they think is a ghost? Again?"

"Get a job elsewhere," Barry suggested, though a bit downcast. "Talk to your parents. Say whatever is in those letters to their faces. With no Griffin, you can choose how you want to live this time."

"But I'll miss you guys." Amara's smile was a bit forlorn, though.

"We'll always be here for you," Caitlin told her with a matching smile.

Cisco simply nodded. It seemed he could not bring himself to say goodbye.

Barry was silent for a moment. Then he spoke quietly. "I _did_ love you, Amara. I really did. I wish you the best of luck wherever you go."

"Aw. Thanks guys." Amara gave each of her friends a hug, and happy tears spilled down her cheeks. And pulled away. "And tell everyone else I said goodbye. Cisco, can I please keep the suit?"

"Sure thing," he said, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

Amara looked around at the circle of people surrounding her, the dearest people in her life. She stepped before Barry and embraced him, leaning her head against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her after a moment of hesitation. "I'll take those chances, Amara," he whispered.

"And I'll keep fighting," she replied softly, tears falling from her eyes and onto his suit. She pulled away reluctantly.

Amara grabbed her suit from the desk along with the postcards Barry had given her. Those were her only remaining possessions. "Goodbye, Team Flash," she declared with a wave and a somber smile before Acceler8 left them with a purple trail of lightning and an afterimage of the hero turned superhero as she found her much-deserved freedom.

**A/N: That's the end of the story! You want to know something funny? This book, my first novel, sat on my "shelf" since I was in about 7th or 8th grade. I didn't think I would publish it. Going back through this story now that I'm a published author and am in 10th grade, it's amazing to see how much my writing and interests have changed. (Don't get me wrong; I still like The Flash!) Just know that change can be a good thing, and if you're looking for change, it takes patience. I struggled with writer's block for a while until I forced myself to write again, and just months after that, I published A Bard's Tales: Venture Forth.**

**Thank you to all of you who read that, and if you didn't, that's totally okay. I love you all; writing would not be possible without the readers. You're all amazing. Keep loving your fandoms. For those of you who are just readers, don't be afraid to pick up the pen, the paintbrush, or whatever hobby calls you. It's crazy how much publishing boosts your confidence! Smile! :D**

**Here's the boring stuff you read from every story Please leave a review, follow, and favorite! 3**


End file.
